This Week In Lazio History: May 4-10

Date: Sunday, May 9, 1976 Location: Stadio Olimpico, Rome Fixture: Lazio Milan 4-0 A devilish nightmare for Milan as Lazio outclass them with a 4-0 thumping giving themselves a chance to avoid relegation.

Match In Focus

Date: Sunday, May 7, 1995 Location: Stadio Delle Alpi, Turin Fixture: Juventus Lazio 0-3

So far in the league Lazio were in 4th position. The Biancocelesti had won 14, drawn 6 and lost 9.

Juventus were top of the table and closing in on yet another Serie A title.

A crowd of 45,000 turned up to see Juve move nearer the league title.

The game was controlled by Juve from the start and Luca Marchegiani soon realized he would be in for a busy afternoon. His first difficult save came from a Moreno Torricelli header in the 11th minute and he then repeated himself on a Sergio Porrini header with prodigious reflexes. In the 26th minute Ciro Ferrara’s curling shot was again superbly saved by the “Conte” (The Count, for his aplomb and gentleman like manner).

And Lazio? They had one chance in the 28th minute but an Alen Boksic shot went just wide of an empty goal after Michelangelo Rampulla had recklessly come off his line.

Then it was all Juve again. In the 33rd minute Fabrizio Ravanelli and Gianluca Vialli got in each other’s way and “Topolino’s” (Little mouse) shot went wide. A minute later Didier Deschamps decided to go alone but Marchegiani managed to anticipate him just before he shot. The Frenchman tried again a few minutes later with what looked like a certain goal but Marchegiani’s dive denied the “Old Lady” again. A minute later a Vialli header went wide and then came the Lazio keeper’s masterpiece, a close range Ravanelli header was almost miraculously kept out by “Super Luca”. Half time came and the score was incredibly still 0-0.

Lazio were in such difficulty that Zdenek Zeman changed the line-up from his classic 4-3-3 to a more defensive 4-4-2 introducing Giorgio Venturin for Beppe Signori during the interval. The Czech had never done something like this before or since.

The second half started off in the same pattern. A rampant Juve and a passive Lazio. In the 51st minute a Deschamps header shaved the post. Two minutes later Roberto Baggio chipped a finally beaten Marchegiani but Paolo Negro was there to clear off the goal line.

There followed constant pressure, corners, crosses, scrambles. In the 62nd minute a spectacular volley by Vialli went close to the post. In the 68th minute Lazio crossed the halfway line but a Venturin shot was not dangerous. In the 71st minute Gian Carlo Marocchi hit the crossbar with a curling effort. Surely a goal would come soon.

It did but for Lazio.In the 72nd minute Roberto Di Matteo won a fifty-fifty challenge with Ferrara and coolly beat Rampulla with a low right foot. Juve 0 Lazio 1 but completely against the run of play.

Juve were in shock and their assault on the Lazio goal lost some of its strength despite bringing on Alex Del Piero. They did however have two more opportunities to equalise but Marchegiani saved from “Pinturicchio” Del Piero and Marocchi’s effort whistled wide of the post.

Juventus were groggy and unbalanced after attacking so much and Lazio took advantage. In the 90th minute a counter foot by Gigi Casiraghi was finished off by Boksic. 0-2 and Juve were out for the count.

In the 92nd minute things got worse for the “Zebras” as the Eagles swooped again (today they were more like vultures). Another counterattack by Boksic gave Venturin an open goal opportunity and he made it 0-3. An unbelievable score line considering the performances by the two teams.

Juventus had attacked for almost the entire game but imprecision, a bit of bad luck and above all an unbeatable Marchegiani had handed them a humiliating home defeat.

Lazio had not played a “Zemanlike” game but had resisted the onslaught, somehow coming out unscathed and then been incredibly clinical on the break.

Rarely has a score been so deceiving but Lazio were not complaining … when would it happen again to beat Juventus 3-0 in Turin. Thirty years later it still has not.

In Memory: Oliviero Garlini

Oliviero Garlini was well remembered by all Biancoceleste fans and it was his goals that helped Lazio avoid relegation in the dramatic and problematic 1985-86 Serie B season.

Born in Stezzano on March 4 1957, Garlini started his professional career in Como in serie A in 1975-76 but a year later he was sold to Empoli in Serie C. Despite scoring a lot of goals, his career was slow in taking off. After a year at Empoli, he played two years for Nocerina, contributing to their promotion to Serie B, and a year at Fano in Serie C1.

Garlini then started to play for Cesena where he found some stability and stayed four years. Cesena got promoted in his first year and in Serie A he became Walter Schachner’s attacking partner.

Lazio signed him for the 1984-85 season, which was a very negative one, but despite being behind Bruno Giordano and Michael Laudrup in the pecking order he still managed to play a fair number of games even though he scored just one goal. The next year was in Serie B but he played as the main central striker. Despite another annus horribilis for Lazio, he was Serie B top goal scorer with 18 goals.

Lazio had very little money and needed to cash in, so they sold him to Inter. He played one year for the Nerazzurri (and scored against Roma!!!) before going back to Atalanta in serie B and helping them win promotion to Serie A with 17 goals.

His last four years of football at Ancona, Atalanta, Ascoli and Ravenna saw him score less and less and he finally quit professional football in 1991.

Garlini then became a coach and worked with the youth teams of Dalmine from 2004 to 2011.

In 1999 he was called by his friend Alessandro Altobelli to be team manager of Padova. But had to resign following an unfortunate episode. In the match between Padova and Varese in Serie C1, with Padova winning 2-0, the head coach Adriano Fedele called for the substitution of the only under-21 player left on the pitch. The problem however was that the rules for Serie C1 that year indicated that at least one under-21 player had to be on the pitch at all times. The substitution cost them the game and the lost points cost them relegation. Garlini theoretically was in charge so he was the guy who had to resign.

Garlini played 67 games for Lazio (20 in Serie A, 38 in Serie B and 9 in Coppa Italia) and scored 19 goals (1 in Serie A and 18 in Serie B).

He was called “Boom Boom” Garlini by Lazio fans because he often scored braces (Boom Boom being a pun taken from the nickname of the boxer Ray Boom Boom Mancini) but also “Oliviero bomber vero”, literally a true bomber. He was a good centre-forward and scored some spectacular goals for Lazio in his second year.

He died in Bergamo following a long illness on May 8, 2025 at just 68 years of age.

Birthdays this Week

• Armando Bertagni, 4-5-1907, defender, Italy, 86 appearances (1932-35)
• Massimo Cacciatori, 4-5-1951, goalkeeper, Italy, 85 appearances (1978-85)
• Oliviero Visentin, 4-5-1936, forward, Italy, 23 appearances, 6 goals (1959-61)
• Juan Pablo Sorin, 5-5-1976, defender, Argentina, 11 appearances (2002)
• Francesco Antonazzi, 6-5-1924, defender, Italy, 262 appearances (1945-56)
• Aldo De Fazio, 6-5-1927, goalkeeper, Italy, 25 appearances (1949-50, 1953-55)
• Pietro Dotti, 6-5-1939, defender, Italy, 96 appearances (1964-67)
• Ivan de la Peña, 6-5-1976, midfielder, Spain, 25 appearances, 1 goal (1998-99, 2001-02)
• Leoncino Unzain, 6-5-1925, forward, Paraguay, 15 appearances, 1 goal (1950-51)
• Giuseppe Biava, 8-5-1987, defender, Italy, 147 appearances, 6 goals (2010-14)
• Carlo Cevenini V, 8-5-1901, forward, Italy, 70 appearances, 16 goals (1927-32)
• Domenico Caso, 9-5-1954, midfielder, Italy, 110 appearances, 8 goals (1985-88, manager 2004)
• Gilberto Noletti, 9-5-1941, defender, Italy, 25 appearances (1961-62)
• Diego Novaretti, 9-5-1985, defender, Argentina, 24 appearances (2013-15)
• Vittorio Dagianti, 10-5-1919, midfielder, Italy, 28 appearances, 5 goals (1938-41)

This Article Was Written by Dag Jenkins & Simon Basten from Lazio Stories. More Information on the Above Matches and Players can be found on LazioStories.com.