This Week In Lazio History | June 24-30 | Matches, Memories, Birthdays | OneFootball

Between June 24-30, Lazio won in European tournaments, fought to reach a national final, and won the Fornari Cup and Cup of the Alps.

Matches of the Week

Date: Sunday, June 24, 1923Venue: Campo Oncino, Torre AnnunziataFixture: Savoia Lazio 3-3, Southern Division Final, First LegLazio draw against Savoia in the first leg of the Southern Division Final. The Biancocelesti can still reach the National final.

Date: Sunday, June 26, 1960Venue: Stade Émile-Albeau, SedanFixture: Sedan Lazio 2-4, Italo-French Friendship CupVisentin scores a hat-trick as Lazio also win the second leg of the Italo-French Friendship Cup against Sedan.

Date: Sunday, June 26, 1932Venue: Campo Testaccio, RomeFixture: Roma Lazio 0-3, Coppa Fornari FinalLazio beat Roma for the first time in the Coppa Fornari final with a Fantoni I brace and Malatesta.

Date: Sunday, June 27, 1937Venue: Stadio PNF, RomeFixture: Lazio Hungaria 3-2, Round of 16, Central European CupLazio go 3-0 up and then resist the visitor’s attempt at a comeback.

Date: Tuesday, June 30, 2020Venue: Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, TurinFixture: Torino Lazio 1-2The Biancocelesti win a very difficult game coming from behind thanks to Immobile and Parolo.

Match In Focus

Date: Friday, June 25, 1971Venue: St. Jakob Stadium, BaselFixture: Basel Lazio 1-3, Cup of the Alps Final

Unknown to the players, club, new manager, and fans – this is where the glory started.

It had been an awful season. President Umberto Lenzini and manager Juan Carlos Lorenzo had argued all year over basically everything and the team suffered the consequences. Lazio had arrived 15th which meant relegation.

Lenzini had chosen a new manager, Tommaso Maestrelli, but at the end of the season, they had to play the Cup of the Alps and Bob Lovati took over as coach for this event.

This was the 11th edition of the cup. It was a competition between Italian and Swiss sides. This year eight teams took part, divided into two mixed groups. The A Group was made up of Lazio, Sampdoria, Lugano and Winterthur. The B Group had Varese, Verona, Basel and Lausanne. The formula was that each team played the foreign team in their group twice (so no matches between Italians). The highest-placed Italian and Swiss teams would then qualify for the final. The points were calculated from the points from the four matches added to the goals scored.

Lazio had reached the final, winning three games and drawing one. Their opponents were Basel, the holders of the cup as they had won the past two editions. They were considered a decent team, had some good players in Karl Odermatt, Walter Balmer, and Peter Ramseier, and had a highly respected manager in German Helmut Benthaus (who would later win the Bundesliga with Stuttgart in 1984). They had come second in the Swiss league (would win it the following year) and reached the Last 16 in the European Cup (lost to eventual winners Ajax).

The Biancocelesti scored early with Pierpaolo Manservisi but the Swiss equalised towards the end of the first half. Despite a referee, who clearly had an eyesight problem, Giorgio Chinaglia scored a brace and Lazio won the cup.

A great satisfaction for the club after a difficult season. It was certainly not the European Cup or UEFA Cup but it held some prestige at the time. The Biancocelesti had performed well and the win was given great emphasis in the local and national media.

Serie B awaited but with today’s triumph, the new manager Maestrelli and President Lenzini’s promise not to sell Chinaglia to Juventus the future looked brighter. And it certainly was.

In Memory: Felice Virgilio Levratto

Virgilio Felice Levratto is a mythical figure in the Italian football world. His shot was so powerful that he often broke the goal and he was nicknamed “Sfondareti” (goal breaker).

Born on October 26, 1904, in Carcare near Savona, he was called up by Vittorio Pozzo to play in the Olympic Games of 1924 in Paris. In the game against Luxemburg, one of his shots hit the goalkeeper, Etienne Bauch, in the face. Bauch started bleeding from the mouth. The shot had caused a deep cut to the goalkeeper’s tongue. The medics managed to stitch it together and Bauch went back in goal. Shortly after Bauch was faced by Levratto yet again. What should he do? Be brave or run away? He chose the second option and Levratto, taking pity on the poor chap, deliberately kicked the ball wide.

He stayed two years with Lazio from 1934 to 1936, playing alongside Silvio Piola. He made 53 appearances and scored 9 goals.

In 1959 he became the protagonist of an Italian song. A famous popular quartet in Italy, Quartetto Cetra, got to know him and wrote a song about an imaginary player, named Spartaco, who was so good that he was even better than Levratto.

Levratto died in Genoa on June 30, 1968. He was a great player and despite the fact that he did not really win much, he became a legend that lives on to this day.

Birthdays This Week