This Week In Lazio History: March 24-30 | OneFootball

This week in Lazio history we remember some fundamental victories and the passing of a Lazio legend: Bob Lovati.

Matches of the Week

Date: Sunday, March 24, 1985 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Roma 1-1 The usual Rome derby: a draw and fights between players.

Date: Saturday, March 25, 2000 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Roma 2-1 A goal down after three minutes, and after a midweek battle at Stamford Bridge, Lazio fight back with Nedved and Veron to keep Scudetto dream alive

Date: Sunday, March 27, 1988 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Piacenza 5-2 A convincing win over Piacenza moves Lazio into promotion places ready for the grand finale. Goals from Monelli, Gregucci, Muro and a Savino brace

Date: Sunday, March 28, 1943 Venue: Stadio PNF, Rome Fixture: Lazio Milano 4-2 Six goals all in the first half, give Lazio prestigious victory thanks to Piola, Gualtieri and Borici

Date: Sunday, March 29, 1992 Venue: Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin Fixture: Juventus Lazio 1-1 Lazio get the point they wanted but Juventus equalise in injury time

Match In Focus

Date: Sunday, March 28, 1980 Venue: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Catanzaro 2-0

On March 23, 1980, the Italian police arrested a number Lazio, Milan, Bologna, Avellino, Genoa and Perugia players They were all accused of match fixing. The Biancoceleste players were Captain Pino Wilson, Lionello Manfredonia, Bruno Giordano and goalkeeper Massimo Cacciatori.

Apart from the obvious disaster per se, there was a very important game to be played: Lazio vs Catanzaro. If Lazio lost, the Biancocelesti would almost certainly go down to Serie B especially because without the four players the chances of survival would be extremely slim.

Manager Bob Lovati had the difficult task of deciding which players would replace the four “rogues”. He chose two young players from the Primavera team: Riccardo Budoni in goal and Carlo Perrone as sweeper. Perrone had already played a few games in Serie A for the first team over the last couple of years, but for Budoni it was a first. Dario Pighin took Manfredonia’s place and up front he put Riccardo Cenci, assisted by Vincenzo D’Amico .

Lazio started the game really well and in the first 15 minutes had several chances, but then a comprehensible fear set in and they started to retreat to defence. Catanzaro, perhaps feeling sorry for Lazio and distracted by the fact that they themselves would stay up anyway since a number of teams were going to be punished with relegation, should have exploited the great opportunity but instead only had a couple of chances in the first half. In the 23rd minute Carlo Bresciani, after having dribbled Budoni too, incredibly missed a golden chance by shooting wide and later missed another opportunity.

In the second half Lazio doubled their efforts and attacked constantly. The Biancocelesti finally scored in the 72nd minute when Captain D’Amico went into the box on the right, dribbled past a defender, and then from an almost impossible angle put the ball in the back of the net.

Ten minutes later Mauro Tassotti crossed a ball high into the box and Giuliano Groppi, frightened by the presence of Renzo Garlaschelli behind him, lobbed the ball over Antonio Trapani for Lazio’s second goal.

Lazio were almost safe thanks to a bunch of kids captained by D’Amico. One could always count on Vincenzo when the going got tough.

In Memory: Bob Lovati

Roberto Lovati, affectionately known as “Bob”, was born in Cusano Milanino on July 20, 1927. Although originally from the region of Lombardy, Lovati became a legend at Lazio, first as a player, then as a manager and then technical director plus various other jobs, just as long it was for Lazio.

His professional debut came for Pisa in Serie B in 1949. He played 59 games in Tuscany and in 1954 was bought by Lazio who however then loaned him to Torino for a year (he made 33 appearances). In 1955 he returned to Lazio and this time it was to stay. So his playing career at Lazio started in 1955 and he was captain when Lazio won the Italian Cup in 1958, their first historic silverware. He played for the Biancocelesti for six years making 146 appearances (135 in Serie A and 11 in Coppa Italia). He also earned two Italian caps (one unfortunately a 6-1 defeat against the mighty Yugoslavia).

After retiring he went on to coach the goalkeepers but in October 1962, when Carlo Facchini was sacked, Lovati became head coach and was the one who sat on the bench on Sundays. The real manager was Juan Carlos Lorenzo but because he was not Italian, he could not officially be manager or be on the sidelines on match day. Lovati from 1962 to 1967 coached the Lazio youth teams, but was also assistant to the two managers (Umberto Mannocci and Maino Neri) in the 1966-67 season. In February 1968 he took the place of sacked manager Renato Gei, and for the following three seasons he assisted Lorenzo again. In the summer of 1971, after Lorenzo had been sacked and before the arrival of Tommaso Maestrelli, he managed the team that won the Cup of the Alps.

He had a splendid relationship with Maestrelli and was his assistant for all the time the Maestro was manager. Lovati was part of that splendid dream team that won the 1973-74 scudetto.

He came in as manager when Luis Vinicio was sacked in 1978 and stayed until the end of the 1979-80 season. He led Lazio as manager for 106 games. In later life he also worked as a talent scout and as a director, always obviously for Lazio.

He died in Rome on March 30, 2011 at 84.

At Lazio they often joke that Bob did every job under the sun for the club except maybe gardener, and only because he was not asked. He certainly achieved cult status.

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