Game 15, Serie A
Sunday, January 5, 1992
Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Lazio Foggia 5-2
A highly entraining game sees Lazio sink the Foggia boat not without difficulty.
It had been a reasonable start for Lazio. They were currently on 16 points.
Their opposition today, Foggia, were a very interesting team. The previous season had seen the "Satanelli" (little devils) promoted after winning the Serie B championship.
They had a very exciting attacking trio in Roberto Rambaudi - Francesco Baiano - Beppe Signori. Baiano had been top scorer with 22 goals. Foggia were managed by Zdenek Zeman (later to coach both Roman teams) and played a very aggressive and modern 4-3-3 style of football.
"Zemanlandia" came to the capital on 15 points after 5 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses.
Today's game promised to be spectacular.
The match
A crowd of 40,000 gathered at the Olimpico in expectation of an entertaining game. They were not disappointed.
Lazio had not won at the Olimpico for eight months and had a last-minute defection with first choice keeper Valerio Fiori out with a high temperature, Fernando Orsi taking his place between the posts. Foggia played with 2 out of 3 of their magic attacking trio, with Rambaudi starting on the bench.
The match started at a furious pace, unlike many Serie A games, mainly due to Foggia's frenetic attacking oriented style of play. The first 20 minutes were end to end with 4 goals that could easily have been more by both sides.
Lazio took first blood after 10 minutes. A pass by Roberto Bacci found Thomas Doll who, beating Foggia's assiduous offside trap, raced towards goal and hammered an unstoppable shot past Francesco Mancini. 1-0 to Lazio who had taken advantage of Zeman's characteristic high defensive line with a perfectly timed move.
The lead would only last two minutes. Igor Shalimov after a one -two with Dan Petrescu approached the edge of the box and with a spectacular left-foot gave Orsi no chance with a top hand corner strike.
The game continued to be fast and furious and four minutes later Lazio were in front again. On a cross by Cristiano Bergodi the German striker Karl Heinz Riedle seemed to stay in the air for an eternity before heading the ball into the net.
Foggia reacted immediately but it was Lazio who had a colossal chance to take a double lead. Rubén Sosa put through by Claudio Sclosa had only the keeper to beat and Gabriele Pin waiting in an even more favourable position but the Uruguayan missed.
In Italy they say "gol mangiato, gol subito" (goal missed, goal conceded). This is exactly what happened next. Shalimov went straight through a naively soft Lazio defence and chipped Orsi to equalise. Only 22 minutes gone and it was Lazio 2, Foggia 2.
The game had promised goals and entertainment and that is exactly what it was giving.
In the 34th minute however came a major game changer. A one-two combination between Sosa and Riedle was intentionally handballed and intercepted by an already booked Salvatore Matrecano. The referee had no choice but to show the defender a red card. Zeman at this point tried to reshuffle the team and give it some balance by replacing Kolyvanov with Tommaso Napoli.
Foggia were soon made to pay for their numerical inferiority. In the 38th minute a German combination saw Riedle head in a perfect Thomas Doll cross. A rollercoaster first half came to an end enabling players and fans alike to regain their breath; Lazio 3 Foggia 2.
If anyone thought 10 men would dampen Foggia's energy they were mistaken. In the second half they kept up the frenetic rhythm and gave as good as they got. Orsi was kept busy by a dangerous shot by Onofrio Barone plus other chances came to Signori, Gualtiero Grandini and Rambaudi (who had replaced Petrescu after 71 minutes).
Lazio were denied a seemingly clear penalty on Doll but were made to work hard controlling their dynamic opponents. It was not until nine minutes from time that they could relax a little when Giovanni Stroppa got their fourth. He turned on himself on the right side of the area beat two, in this case sluggish, Foggia defenders and crashed home an unstoppable close-range shot.
Two minutes later it was definitely all over when Raffaele Sergio scored with his wrong foot with a long range, low strike to make it 5-2.
A highly entertaining afternoon was brought to an end. The score line would lead one to believe it had been easy for Lazio but this was far from the truth. The result was in doubt until the last ten minutes and Foggia had impressed for organization, speed, stamina and courage.
Who played for Lazio
Orsi, Bergodi, Sergio, G. Pin, Corino, Soldà, Bacci, Doll, Riedle (78' Neri), Sclosa (46' Stroppa), Sosa
Manager: Zoff
Who played for Foggia
F. Mancini, Codispoti, Grandini, Shalimov, Matrecano, Consagra, Kolyvanov (34' T. Napoli), Petrescu (71' Rambaudi), Baiano, Barone, Signori
Substitutes: Rosin, Porro (I), Masumeci
Manager: Zeman
Referee: Cesari
Goals: 10' Doll, 12' Shalimov, 16' Riedle, 21' Shalimov, 38' Riedle, 81' Stroppa, 83' Sergio
Sources
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