Another big home win
The Biancocelesti comfortably beat Padova with goals from Ghio, Rinero and Fortunato
Also on this day: November 10, 2019: Lazio Lecce 4-2. An extremely complicated game sees Lazio win with goals from Correa, Immobile and Milinkovic-Savic. Player of the day: Silvio Proto
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had arrived 11th in Serie B. A rather dismal performance, so poor that at a certain point the Biancocelesti were very close to the relegation zone. In the end they managed to stay in Serie B but just two points ahead of the five teams that finished on 36 and needed a playoff to determine who would join Novara and Potenza in Serie C (in the end Venezia and Messina were relegated).
The worst thing of last year was the very low number of goals scored: just 27 in 40 games. Certainly not enough to have any chance of promotion. Manager Renato Gei had been sacked in February, substituted by faithful Bob Lovati.
Hence for the 1968-69 season there was a need for a new head coach and new forwards. Juan Carlos Lorenzo returned for his second stint at Lazio and a number of interesting players were signed: defender Mario Facco and midfielder Ferruccio Mazzola from Inter, forward Gian Piero Ghio from Avellino and three loans from Juventus, defender Guido Onor, goalkeeper Pietro Fioravanti and midfielder Elio Rinero.
There was optimism for a return to Serie A.
Lazio had said goodbye to legendary keeper Idilio Cei (Palermo), Paolo Carosi (Catania) and Pieluigi Pagni (Spal on loan).
First, however, there was the Coppa Italia to play in September. Lazio was paired with Roma, Bologna and Spal. The Biancocelesti lost the derby and drew the other two games 1-1. Roma won the group and eventually the Coppa Italia too.
In the first five games the Biancocelesti had won at home comfortably but earned only one point away, so were on five points. It was still early stages and the Serie B tournament is a very long one.
The match: Sunday, November 10, 1968, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
After losing at Terni the previous week, the Biancocelesti were called to repeat the positive home performances of the first two games of the season. The first goal came in the 42nd minute after Gian Piero Ghio arrived just late on a great pass by Giuliano Fortunato in the 25th minute and a possible penalty waved away by referee Francesco Panzini (who fortunately would not deny Lazio a penalty on May 12, 1974). Anyway, Fortunato crossed for Giuseppe Massa whose header was parried by Luigi Bertossi. The ball arrived at the feet of defender Mauro Gatti who started contemplating what to do with it. While he was thinking about it, Ghio put the ball in the back of the net. A minute later Paolo Bergamo elbowed Elio Rinero in the face and the ref sent him off.
In the second half, Lazio controlled and scored three more. In the 48th minute Rinero capitalised a personal move with a shot under the crossbar and seven minutes later made it three when a perfect pass from Arrigo Dolso allowed him to be face to face with the keeper. Fortunato made it four in the 65th minute thanks to another Dolso assist.
An easy win for Lazio, now there was a need to do better away from home.
Who played for Lazio
Substitutes: Fioravanti, Cucchi
TD: Lorenzo
Manager: Lovati
Who played for Padova
Bertossi, Panisi, Fusi, Villa, Barbiero, Gatti, Visentin (76' Brignani), Boscolo, Bergamo, Fraschini, M.Gori.
Substitutes: Galassi.
Manager: Rosa.
Referee: Panzino
Goals: 42’ Ghio, 48’ Rinero, 55’ Rinero, 65’ Fortunato
What happened next
A win at Mantua in the seventh game broke the negative away spell but then two home draws also broke the home record. Lazio however were in a good position, just one point behind leaders Genoa and Foggia. The 4-0 win away at Cesena then allowed the Biancocelesti to reach the top of the table in the company of Brescia and Genoa. Game 12 saw the beginning of a two-team lead that lasted the whole season. Brescia and Lazio were either first or second from then on to the end of the tournament. At the end of the first half of the Campionato, and after losing at Reggio Emilia, Lazio were second together with Bari, one point behind Brescia.
On April 20 the big match between the two teams saw the Biancocelesti prevail and take the Serie B lead and when they won at Catania on May 11 the lead became +4. Two weeks later it was +5 on Brescia but more importantly +6 on third place with 5 games to the end of the season.
Serie A was obtained mathematically thanks to a 3-0 win against Lecco on June 8 and the certainty of winning the Serie B championship arrived a week later despite falling to Monza. As a consequence, the Biancocelesti would be playing the Mitropa Cup the following year.
It was a great season, Lazio were strong and had good players in every role. A mix of young talent and experience, well managed by Lorenzo. There was a lot of room for optimism for the 1960-70 season in Serie A.
Lazio 1968-69
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie B | 38 | 17 | 16 | 5 | 55 |
Coppa Italia | 3 | - | 2 | 1 | 2 |
Total | 41 | 17 | 18 | 6 | 57 |
Top five appearances (complete player statistics)
Player | Total | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
40 | 37 | 3 | |
40 | 37 | 3 | |
39 | 36 | 3 | |
38 | 38 | - | |
37 | 35 | 2 |
Top five goal scorers (complete player statistics)
Player | Total | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
Gian Piero Ghio | 11 | 10 | 1 |
Ferruccio Mazzola II | 8 | 8 | - |
Giuliano Fortunato | 8 | 8 | - |
7 | 6 | 1 | |
6 | 6 | - |
Let's talk about Guido Onor
Guido Onor was born in Arona, near Novara, on June 20 1948. He began his career with Juventus in 1967-68 and after a season, with just two appearances, he was loaned to Lazio in an operation which saw three players pass to Lazio on loan for the Biancoceleste’s Serie B season (the other two were back up goalkeeper Pietro Fioravanti and midfielder Elio Rinero). As a matter of fact, Onor was sent to Rome and joined Lazio also because he had to do his annual obligatory military service in the capital.
Lazio in 1968-69 did very well under Juan Carlos Lorenzo and they won the Serie B championship. Onor got 12 league appearances and three in Coppa Italia, but the defender was not confirmed at the end of the season and went back to Turin. In 1969-70 he signed for Monza and stayed there two years. In the first, the club just missed out on promotion to Serie A by three points under Gigi Radice (later to win a scudetto with Torino), in the second they avoided relegation by three points.
In 1971 he signed for Livorno but they were relegated to Serie C. Same fate with Mantova a year later. In 1974 he signed with Messina in Serie C and stayed for two years. In 1976 he played a season at Salerno before returning to Messina for his final three years of active football which included a promotion from Serie D to Serie C2 in 1977-78.
In an interview in 2016 he spoke about his time with Lazio. “I played alongside Diego Zanetti, an icon, I was just a young lad doing his military service. One has to be reminded that there was also Facco, so that is why I did not have much playing time. I still have in my eyes my debut in the Italian Cup, in September, in the derby with Roma. We lost 1-0, we were in front of 70,000 spectators, the match took place at night. I remember the noise of the crowd while we were inside the Olimpico, it seemed to be in a hornet's nest”. He has pleasant memories of Lorenzo. “He was obsessed, but he was good and took manic care of the defensive aspect especially. Before the match he told me: At the end, you will have to tell me what your opponents smell of”. He was also very superstitious. “If in the previous home match we had won and the bus taking us to the Olympic stadium had arrived at Ponte Milvio on a green light, then Lorenzo didn't want it to stop if the light was red and gave the driver the order to slow down to reach the intersection on green." The polenta: "We went to play a match in the north. We were in a hotel on the sixth floor. He made us walk up the stairs for practice. On the menu there was polenta. On the Sunday we got a positive result. For the next away match, he looked for a similar hotel and the same menu. He had polenta bought specifically, even though it was spring”.
Lazio Career
Season | Total Appearances | Serie B | Coppa Italia |
1968-69 | 15 | 12 | 3 |
Sources
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