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Writer's pictureSimon Basten

January 4, 1987: Lazio Genoa 3-0

Updated: Oct 17

A good win, in a difficult match


Lazio score early, are forced to suffer, but ultimately take the points.




Ticket owned by Dag Jenkins, photo by Dag Jenkins

The season so far


There was new ownership. The Calleri brothers and Renato Bocchi had taken over from the disastrous Giorgio Chinaglia Presidency and then the possibly even worse Franco Chimenti brief regency, so everything was new. New manager, Eugenio Fascetti, new Sports Director, Franco Regalia, new players. There were many farewells and in particular the Biancocelesti said goodbye to Vincenzo D’Amico (Ternana), Arcadio Spinozzi (Reggina) and Oliviero Garlini who was a necessary sacrifice and sold to Inter.


The most important new players were Antonio Acerbis (Pescara), Angelo Gregucci and Giancarlo Camolese (Alessandria), Gabriele Pin (Juventus) plus Giuliano Terraneo (Milan).


There was a certain degree of optimism but any hope of promotion was shattered by the summer events.


On May 2, 1986, Armando Carbone, right hand man of Italo Allodi was arrested. Allodi was a well-known figure in Italian football and worked for a number of clubs, including Juventus and Inter. In 1986 he was working for Napoli. Carbone told the magistrates that there was a match fixing association with clubs at all levels involved. Numerous clubs were investigated: Bari, Napoli and Udinese in Serie A, many more in Serie B and C. Plus Lazio.


Why were Lazio involved? Carbone was a good friend of Claudio Vinazzani, a Lazio player. Vinazzani had played for Napoli for seven years before joining Lazio in 1983. He did like to bet but never on matches where he played.


In Italy one could not legally bet on the result of a single game or on the scores of multiple games. There was just the Totocalcio, where one had to guess the result of 13 games. There was however an illegal betting system called Totonero run by illegal bookmakers similar to how legal bets were organised in the UK. Lazio had already been involved in the 1980 scandal and, despite a total lack of proof or wrongdoing by the club itself, since four players had been involved, Lazio were relegated to Serie B.


If there was basically nothing in 1980, in this case there was even less. There was a telephone conversation between Carbone and Vinazzani where the former asked whether the Lazio player was interested in “buying” a Lazio win against Palermo. Vinazzani’s answer was vague and nothing happened. The vagueness in the response was an indication of Lazio’s guilt, according to the prosecution. For this Lazio were sentenced to relegation to Serie C on August 5.


A difficult summer for the Lazio fans, but a very difficult summer for the new owners, Calleri and Bocchi. “If Lazio go down to Serie C, what are we going to do?” they must have asked themselves. It would have been the end of Lazio; the new owners would probably have backed out. Lazio fans mobilised, there were demonstrations and protests. It was simply not possible to relegate Lazio for nothing.


The appeal started on August 21 with many Lazio fans outside the Hilton hotel in Rome waiting to see what would happen. Carboni should have testified but the court refused to have him present. The decision to be made therefore had to be based on the material provided in the first court case. Hence, the written declaration from Carboni saying that Lazio had nothing to do with the match fixing and that he never fixed a match for the Biancocelesti could not be used.


On August 27, Lazio had to play Napoli at the Olimpico for the Coppa Italia. Minutes before the match, the Italian State Television, RAI, announced that the sentence had been confirmed. An overzealous member of the court had leaked the news. This ultimately saved Lazio. The court could not confirm the previous sentence otherwise it would have lost face. In the end Lazio stayed in Serie B but with a docking of nine points. This was a very heavy burden with only two points for a victory, but it at least meant that the new owners could continue.


Fascetti told the players: “This is the situation. You can leave, and it would be perfectly normal if you did, or stay and fight. Decide”. All the players stayed.


The start of the season was terrible. Lazio drew the first game away at Parma but lost a home to Messina. This basically meant that the burden was as if it was -11.


After the catastrophic beginning Lazio started to win and reduce the handicap. After 8 games the Biancocelesti finally had a +1 in the table and were only two points from safety. The relegation zone was left in the previous game at Cagliari where Lazio won 1-0 with a goal from Antonio Schillaci, cousin of the future star Salvatore. Now the players could relax and concentrate on going up the table


The match: Sunday, January 4, 1987, Stadio Olimpico, Rome


Lazio were without their bomber Giuliano Fiorini and Eugenio Fascetti opted to put Fabio Poli closer to the only forward Paolo Mandelli. Despite the problems in attack, the Biancocelesti scored almost immediately. Antonio Acerbis crossed into the box for Mandelli who tried to control it but was hugged romantically by Claudio Testoni. In doing so he touched the ball with his hand and the referee gave the Biancocelesti the penalty. Gabriel Podavini made no mistake.


The penalty was a little gift but later on in the first half Poli was clearly fouled in the box. A much more evident penalty that the ref decided to ignore. After the first twenty minutes the Biancocelesti ran out of steam and Genoa advanced. In the 26th minute Franco Rotella crossed from the left, splendid header by Angelo Trevisan, Giuliano Terraneo was miraculous.


In the second half Acerbis stopped running and Roberto Policano dominated his wing. His precious crosses for Stefano Eranio and Loriano Cipriani in the 59th and 61st minute were squandered. Policano therefore decided to take matters into his own hands and in the 67th minute thanks to a perfect assist from Alessandro Scanziani dribbled past Terraneo and scored Genoa’s equaliser. However, he had fouled Acerbis in doing so, so the referee disallowed the goal.


The Rossoblu lost momentum and Lazio doubled the score. In the 74th minute Giorgio Magnocavallo crossed from the right towards the outside of the box. Mimmo Caso, seeing Giovanni Cervone just slightly too far forward, invented a beautiful lob that beat the future Roma goalkeeper. Three minutes later Magnocavallo again from the right, low cross in the middle, in came Poli who whacked the ball in for Lazio’s third.


A good win, in a difficult match.


Who played for Lazio

 

Terraneo, Podavini, Brunetti, Acerbis (86’ Piscedda), Gregucci, Marino, Poli, Caso (78’ Camolese), Magnocavallo, Pin, Mandelli

Substitutes: Ielpo, Filisetti, Esposito

Manager: Fascetti

 

Who played for Genoa

 

Cervone, Testoni, Torrente, Chiappino, Trevisan, Policano, Rotella, Eranio, Ambu, Scanziani, L.Cipriani.

Substitutes. Favaro, Bosetti, Bini, Luperto, Spallarossa.

Manager: Perotti.

 

Referee: Redini


Goals: 10' Podavini (pen), 74' Caso, 77' Poli

 


What happened next


Towards May Lazio started to tire. Being under constant pressure was taking its toll. Four losses, two draws and just one win meant that with one match to go Cagliari were already in Serie C, Lazio and Taranto were on 31 points, Campobasso, Sambenedettese, Vicenza and Catania on 32. Last games of the season Bari-Sambenedettese, Messina-Campobasso, Taranto-Genoa, Cesena-Catania, Lazio-Vicenza. Even a win may not have been enough.


With seven minutes to go, it was still 0-0. Podavini got the ball and shot. It was more out of desperation than an actual goal scoring attempt. He miskicked it but the ball reached Giuliano Fiorini who turned on himself and scored.

 

Final verdict: Lazio, Campobasso and Taranto needed a playoff to determine who would join Cagliari, Catania and Vicenza in Serie C. In Naples, on June 27, Lazio played their first game against Taranto and lost due to a goal in blatant offside. Then Taranto and Campobasso drew 1-1 on July 1. This meant that Lazio had to beat Campobasso to stay in Serie B. They did so thanks to a Fabio Poli goal. The Biancocelesti were safe.


Lazio 1986-87

Competition

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

Goals scored

Serie B

40

15

14

11

36

Coppa Italia

7

2

3

2

8

Total

47

17

17

13

44

Top Five Appearances

Players

Total

Serie B

Serie B playoffs

Coppa Italia

Caso

47

38

2

7

Pin

45

38

2

5

Terraneo

45

38

2

5

Acerbis

44

37

2

5

Podavini

40

33

1

6

Top Five goal scorers

Players

Total

Serie B

Serie B playoffs

Coppa Italia

Fiorini

9

7

-

2

Mandelli

6

6

-

-

Poli

6

4

1

-

Podavini

5

3

-

2

Marino

3

3

-

-

Acerbis

3

2

-

1

Caso

3

3

-

-

Let's talk about Giuliano Terraneo


Giuliano Terraneo is second from left, standing. Source Wikipedia

Giuliano Terraneo was born in Briosco, near Monza, on October 16, 1953. He started playing football with the youth teams of Seregno but quickly moved to the bigger local club Monza. He did very well there, winning the Serie C Coppa Italia in 1974-75, and playing 21 league games in 1975-76 when Monza won their Serie C Group and got promoted to Serie B. The year after they almost made it to Serie A but faded towards the end of the season and missed out by just one point.


In 1977 he signed for Torino. The legendary granata goalkeeper Luciano Castellini was towards the end of his career and Terraneo took over during the course of the season. He debuted in Serie A on December 11 in the derby against Juventus. He stayed seven years in Turin making 193 league appearances.


In 1984 he moved to Milan. The Rossoneri had just been promoted in Serie A and needed experienced players to help build up the team. President Giuseppe Farina had invested heavily bringing back manager Nils Liedholm and investing in the new goalkeeper plus Roma legend Agostino DI Bartolomei, and forwards Pietro Paolo Virdis and Mark Hateley. They finished fifth. During the course of Terraneo’s second year with AC Milan the club changed hands and was purchased by Silvio Berlusconi. Milan finished seventh but Silvio had great ambition and there was no room for old timers.


Terraneo hence signed for Lazio. It was one of the most dramatic years in the club’s long history with first an unjust relegation decided by the sports authorities due to Claudio Vinazzani’s friendship with a chap who fixed matches. The relegation to Serie C was then changed to a 9-point docking. Lazio managed to recover but towards the end of the season collapsed and were able to go to a playoff with Campobasso and Taranto only thanks to a goal from Giuliano Fiorini with seven minutes to go against Vicenza. After losing the first match against the Apulians with a goal in blatant offside, Fabio Poli settled things in the game against Campobasso and Lazio managed to avoid Serie C.


Terraneo did not stay to fight for promotion however. He signed for Lecce in Serie B and helped them reach Serie A (Lazio were also promoted). He stayed another two years in Serie A in which Lecce managed to stay up.


When he finished playing, he became general director at Monza and in 1998 he returned to the capital as sporting director for Lazio. He stayed for just one year before moving to Milan and becoming technical director for Inter. His major signings for the Nerazzurri were Clarence Seedorf and Fabio Cannavaro.


In later years he collaborated with Arsene Wenger and Barcelona and between 2015 and 2016 was technical director at Fenerbahçe. In April 2018 he was briefly technical consultant for West Bromwich Albion.


Giuliano Terrano will forever be remembered as one of the heroic players that helped Lazio avoid relegation to Serie C in the -9 season. It is also thanks to him that we can still talk about Lazio today.


Lazio Career

Season

Total appearances (goals)

Serie B

Coppa Italia

1986-87

45

40

5

Sources


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