Fundamental victory
Thanks to a Maraschi goal in the second half, Lazio secure a very important victory.
Also on this day
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had lost out on promotion by just one point due to the infamous ghost goal.
Lazio had to play Napoli at the Stadio Flaminio on March 4, 1962. It was a big match, if Lazio won the immediate return to Serie A would have been downhill. In the 76th minute the referee, Iginio Rigato, gave a free kick to Lazio. Gianni Seghedoni with a splendid shot put the ball in the back of the net. The Lazio players and fans celebrated, the Napoli players despaired. Rigato laughed. “It’s not a goal, the ball was out”. He claimed there was a hole in the net and the ball went right through it. Lazio protested but there was nothing the players could do. The Rai TV footage proved the referee’s mistake and Lazio appealed to the Lega Calcio, but the game’s result remained 0-0. The referee never admitted his mistake. Lazio missed out on promotion by one point, Napoli went into Serie A thanks to that point.
In the summer transfer window not a lot was done, with perhaps the exception of the return of Pierluigi Pagni from his loan to Cosenza. More interesting were the autumn transfers with Gianfranco Garbuglia, Gianbattista Moschino on loan and the return of fan favourite Orlando Rozzoni. Also signed was Gianmarco Calleri who would have an important impact on Lazio but in another role in 20 years’ time. Leaving Lazio were, among many, Giacomo Del Gratta, Franco Pezzullo and Maurilio Prini.
After just four games Lazio had sacked manager Carlo Facchini and called up Juan Carlos Lorenzo for the first of his three stints with the Biancocelesti. The promotion race was very tight with lots of teams involved. At the end of the first half of the season Lazio were 6th just one point off Padova, Foggia and Lecco, third, and two behind Brescia. Messina were leaders.
After three games of the return fixtures, Lazio were still sixth together with Verona and Padova, one point away from third place held by Bari, Foggia and Lecco. Today’s game was against the latter. No need to explain how important this game was.
The match: Sunday, February 24, 1963, Stadio M. Rigamonti, Lecco
Lazio started well and in the tenth minute had scored with Giancarlo Morrone, but he was offside. Shortly after Morrone sent a ball to Orlando Rozzoni who fumbled in the wrong moment and the opportunity vanished. In the 18th minute Morrone dribbled past Italo Galbiati and close to the keeper he passed a very inviting ball to Mario Maraschi but the shot went out. Lecco found it hard to create anything since their “regista” Bengt Lindskog was followed all over the pitch by Nello Governato considerably reducing his activity. The only problem Idilio Cei had in the first half was a scrum following a corner kick which needed a good sense of position to defuse.
In the beginning of the second half the locals produced their maximum effort with shots from Vinicio Facca, Romano Bagatti and Riccardo Innocenti, but this sapped their strength and once the storm was over Lazio took control again. In the 59th minute Lecco did their best to score … in their own goal … but Galbiati managed to save a bad pass back from Angelo Caroli to the keeper on the line.
In the 74th minute the well-deserved goal. Gianbattista Moschino passed to Graziano Landoni on the right who went off, dribbled past Lindskog and passed back centrally. Morrone, Maraschi and Caroli all ran for the ball but it was the defender who got there first and attempted to pass the ball back. But Giovanni Sacchi anticipated his keeper and literally passed the ball to Maraschi who was easily able to volley the ball in the goal.
The Biancocelesti could have scored more with Rozzoni, twice with Morrone and Maraschi but there was no need, Lecco were on their knees.
The local fans were certainly not pleased with the result and at the end of the match began to throw stones at the players and referee. The police were forced to intervene.
Fundamental two points for Lazio and a show of strength.
Who played for Lecco
Alfieri, Facca, Caroli, Galbiati, Sacchi, Ferrari, Bagatti, Schiavo, Innocenti, Lindskog, Cappellaro
Manager: Achilli
Who played for Lazio
Manager: Lovati
TD: Lorenzo
Referee: Angelini
Goal: 74’ Maraschi
What happened next
Lazio reached second place in the second half of March after four consecutive wins and stayed in the promotion zone from then on. Serie A arrived in the very last game, after winning 2-0 against Pro Patria. A triumphant year for Lazio who came second behind Messina and in the company of Bari. A deserved return to Serie A.
Idilio Cei and Diego Zanetti were the players with most appearances (39), Giancarlo Morrone, Paolo Bernasconi and Orlando Rozzoni the top goal scorers (10).
Let's talk about Ernesto Brivio
Ernesto Brivio is one of the most picturesque presidents Lazio have ever had.
Born in Milan in 1915, in his youth he moved to Rome and in 1945 he joined the Black Brigades organized by the Fascist party in the south of Italy. He was the one who with four hand grenades and a machine gun attacked the Motta factory. Arrested and sentenced to years in jail, in 1947 he emigrated to South America and became the right-hand man of the Cuban dictator Fugenzio Batista. He came back to Italy after the Fidel Castro revolution. Back at home he became a movie producer, owned horses, was a property developer and financed the newspaper Telesera. He was famous for going around the nightlife of Rome with a baby lion.
In 1962 the Lazio commissioner, Massimo Giovannini, declared that the club’s debt was of 500 million lire despite the fact that a few days earlier it had been certified that it was double that amount. Giovannini had been chosen to oversee the club by the Lega Serie A, the governing body that runs the major professional football competitions in Italy. He was confirmed for another three months on June 14, but the Lega said no. On September 27, Brivio was elected president much to everyone's surprise. In the meantime, he had become a member of the Italian Social Movement, a neo-fascist party, and had been elected locally for the Rome city council. It appeared that he had a lot of money, something much needed by the club, but nobody knew how much. He promised he would pay all the club’s debts thanks to his winnings at the casino.
The first thing Brivio did was to sack Carlo Faccini and choose Juan Carlos Lorenzo as head coach. In the winter transfer window, he sold Dimitri Pinti and Paolo Carosi and signed Gianfranco Garbuglia and Orlando Rozzoni.
Lazio were doing well but Brivio was nowhere to be seen, apparently abroad. When he came back he promised the scudetto and if Lazio had had a comfortable advantage he would have played tennis champion Nicola Pietrangeli and actor Maurizio Arena in the final games of the season. In February he was shot and injured a finger. It was not clear what actually happened, whether it was self-inflicted or not. This incident created a rift on the club board of directors and Leonardo Siliato, Angelo Miceli and Giovannini quit during the board meeting of February 12. “I will pay all I have to or I will leave”, he said and the three continued. He left on February 21. Lazio then managed to find a group, Gian Chiaron Casoni, Dino Canestri and Fernando De Sando, who managed to partially mitigate the dire financial situation and hand the presidency to Angelo Miceli.
Not a lot is known about what happened to Brivio after. He was arrested in Lebanon in June 1963 but was able to avoid being sent back to Italy where he had been sentenced to jail for fraudulent bankruptcy. He was later acquitted on appeal.
He died in Como, on December 11, 1976.
Sources
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