Happy boxing day from Lazio
Luiz Felipe and Captain Senad Lulic secure a comfortable Lazio victory in the match that saw the Inzaghi brothers clash for the first time as managers.
Also on this day: December 26, 1971, Taranto Lazio 0-0. Thanks to Bandoni’s great saves, Lazio manage to pick up a point in Taranto: Player of the day: Carlo Facchin
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had been heavily penalised by the introduction of the VAR. The referees took it in turns to not use it when Lazio played or to use it in the wrong way. But Lazio had played well and, as usual, just missed out of Champions League qualification arriving fifth, losing the decisive match at home against Inter.
The star signings of the summer were Francesco Acerbi, who took the vacant place in the centre of defence left by Stefan De Vrij who had gone to Inter as a free agent refusing to sign a new contract for Lazio, and Joaquin Correa, exciting Argentinian player from Sevilla, who substituted Felipe Anderson sold to West Ham United.
After a difficult start, with losses to Napoli and Juventus, Lazio had come back with a winning streak of four wins only to lose the derby in probably the worst game ever under Simone Inzaghi. Unable to come to terms with the bigger teams, Lazio also occasionally struggled with the smaller ones. The big players such as Luis Alberto and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic were not playing up to par. They were however fourth coming into this game and Champions League hopes were still high.
Lazio also had a difficult start in the Europa League but they were able to secure qualification to the next round coming second in their group.
The match: Wednesday, December 26, 2018, Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, Bologna
As said earlier this was the first match between the two Inzaghi brothers at manager level, but it was clear from the start who had the better team.
Luis Alberto tried twice in the first 13 minutes. His first shot was way too high but his second was miraculously saved by Lukasz Skorupski. Bologna were also active and after an Orji Okwonko shot in the 20th minute, Andrea Poli had a chance three minutes later but his shot was saved in two attempts by Thomas Strakosha.
The match changed in the 30th minute. Corner for Lazio. Splendid cross by Luis Alberto and Luiz Felipe headed the ball in for his first ever goal for Lazio. 11 minutes later it could have been 2-0 but Correa’s shot was yet again saved by the Bologna goalkeeper.
In the second half Bologna tried to put pressure on Lazio, but there was a big disparity in quality between the two teams. Ciro Immobile, initially on the bench, had a chance in the 64th minute but his shot was deflected by a Bolognese defender.
Nothing of real interest happened until the 90th minute. Luis Alberto’s corner was headed again by Luiz Felipe but this time it was a perfect assist for Senad Lulic and the Captain made it 2-0.
Simone beat Pippo and Lazio consolidated their fourth place.
Who played for Bologna
Skorupski, Calabresi, Danilo, Helander, Mattiello (61' Orsolini), Poli (82' Destro), Nagy, Svanberg, Krejci, Santander, Okwonkwo (64' Palacio).
Substitutes: Da Costa, Santurro, De Mario, Dijks, Gonzalez, Paz, Dzemaili, Mbaye, Donsah, Pulgar.
Manager: F. Inzaghi.
Who played for Lazio
Strakosha, Luiz Felipe, Acerbi, Radu, Marusic, Milinkovic-Savic (74’ Lukaku), Leiva, Luis Alberto, Lulic, Correa (66’ Parolo), Caicedo (61’ Immobile)
Manager: S. Inzaghi
Referee: Pairetto
Goals: 20’ Luiz Felipe, 90’ Lulic
What happened next
Lazio’s season continued to be difficult. They tried to keep the Champions League qualification dream alive as much as possible. But surprise losses against Genoa and Spal away plus the disastrous defeat at home against an already relegated Chievo, lessened the impact of great wins in the derby and away against Inter. Lazio effectively gave up after the home defeat against Atalanta with three matches still to go.
In Europa League Lazio were knocked out against Sevilla, despite the fact that an obvious penalty which could have been a game changer was not given to the Biancocelesti. VAR was yet to be introduced for the European trophy.
But there was glory.
In Coppa Italia, Lazio first knocked out Novara in January and then faced Inter in Milan for the single-legged quarter-finals. Immobile put Lazio in the lead in the first half of extra time, but a ridiculous penalty was awarded to Inter in the second minute of injury time of the second half. The penalty shootout went Lazio’s way and Lazio had to face Milan in the semi-final. A second half goal from Correa in the second leg was the passport for the final at the Stadio Olimpico against Atalanta.
The final was won by Lazio with goals from Milinkovic-Savic and Correa in the second half. Hence, Lazio qualified for the 2019-20 Europa League and the Super Coppa.
Lazio 2018-19
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 38 | 17 | 8 | 13 | 56 |
Coppa Italia | 5 | 3 | 2 | - | 8 |
Europa League | 8 | 3 | - | 5 | 9 |
Total | 51 | 23 | 10 | 18 | 73 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
Acerbi | 50 | 37 | 5 | 8 |
Immobile | 46 | 36 | 5 | 5 |
Lulic | 46 | 35 | 4 | 7 |
Correa | 44 | 34 | 4 | 6 |
Strakosha | 44 | 35 | 5 | 4 |
Top Five Goal Scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
Immobile | 19 | 15 | 3 | 1 |
Correa | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
Caicedo | 9 | 8 | - | 1 |
Milinkovic-Savic | 7 | 5 | 2 | - |
6 | 4 | - | 2 | |
Luis Alberto | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Let’s talk about Luiz Felipe
Luiz Felipe Ramos Marchi was born in Colina, Brazil, in 1997. His youth career started with Ituano where he played his first professional game in 2016 in the Brazilian fourth division.
He was surprisingly signed by Lazio in the summer of 2016 and lent to Salernitana for a year. He did not play much at all, barely seven games, and in the summer of 2017 he was back at Lazio for the start of the pre-season training.
I distinctly remember him coming on in the final 20 minutes of the pre-season friendly against Spal. He made a serious mistake and almost allowed Spal to score. But then he got the ball from the Lazio penalty box and burst past all of the Spal team and was fouled once he was in the penalty box. “Interesting”, I thought and that is probably what also went through the mind of Simone Inzaghi. Luiz Felipe was confirmed and joined the Lazio squad for the 2017-18 season.
Great defender, he has a lot of potential though at times is over eager and makes a lot of fouls. He therefore gets booked a lot more than other defenders, a big liability. Another fault is that at times is a little too over confident, hence giving away balls and allowing the opposition chances to score.
Luiz Felipe had a five-year contract with Lazio. After having played for four years, he went into negotiations for the renewal. Both parties were interested in a new contract for the player but despite the optimism they never reached an agreement. At one point something must have gone wrong during negotiations and Luiz was free to sign for another team.
Lazio, not pleased with Luiz’s behaviour, in the last match of the 2021-22 season against Verona “forgot” to thank him for his services, unlike Lucas Leiva and Thomas Strakosha. Anyway Luiz Felipe, a free agent, made a surprise move and signed a five-year contract with Real Betis. He stayed only a year in Spain though. In 2023 he signed for Al-Ittihād in the Saudi League.
Thanks to his dual nationality, he was called up by Roberto Mancini for the UEFA Nations League 2022-23 and played his first game for Italy against Germany in June 2022.
He left Lazio after 144 appearances (106 in Serie A, 10 in Coppa Italia, 4 in Champions League, 23 in Europa League and 1 in Super Coppa), 2 goals in Serie A and 3 trophies (2 Super Coppa and 1 Coppa Italia).
Appearances and goals for Lazio
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Super Coppa |
2017-18 | 31 (1) | 18 (1) | 3 | - | 10 | - |
2018-19 | 25 | 17 | 3 | - | 5 | - |
2019-20 | 30 (1) | 26 (1) | 2 | - | 1 | 1 |
2020-21 | 18 | 14 | - | 4 | - | - |
2021-22 | 40 | 31 | 2 | - | 7 | - |
Total | 144 (2) | 106 (2) | 10 | 4 | 23 | 1 |
Sources
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