Lazio: In the wind
Words: Federico Farcomeni
Images: Federico Farcomeni
“Can we do a Leicester?” an old man asked as he was leaving Lazio’s midweek Theatre of Dreams in Emilia, just after his team had crushed Sassuolo 6-2.
“But it’s only October, and October is normally for baseball,” someone else mused in response. Some car horns were honking, but it was way too early in the season.
Even so, with eight wins and a draw from their opening nine games, the Eagles are off to the best start in their 126-year history, and staying grounded is proving difficult.
Officially, 4,000 Lazio fans were in attendance at the Mapei Stadium, home of US Sassuolo, on Tuesday in the away end, but the East and West Stands were also seen to contain travelling supporters from Rome.
In total, it is estimated well over 10,000 fans made the trip to Reggio Emilia for Matchday 9.
©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. Lazio support at Sassuolo.
To put this into perspective, to find the last time such an invasion occurred, one has to look back to Empoli in March 1999, when Lazio were seven points clear at the summit of Serie A.
That afternoon, it was top against bottom, and Italian bookmakers had even taken the fixture off the betting slips.
Needless to say, it ended 0-0 in front of nearly 9,000 away fans.
Yes, since then, there have been cup finals in Birmingham, Monaco, Milan, Turin, Beijing, Shanghai, and Riyadh.
There were more than 7,000 in Florence in May 1999; 15,000 in Bologna on the penultimate day of the title-winning season in 2000.
Just two seasons ago, there were 6,000 in Parma. But a crowd of this size on a Tuesday with virtually nothing at stake? No, never.
How do you explain this? It was reported that tens of thousands of fans refused to renew their season tickets last summer.
The strategy behind the protest against president Claudio Lotito was clear from the outset: boycott home matches—apart from the derby in December—and show up exclusively for away fixtures.
As a result, the atmosphere at the Olimpico has gone cold, with all the organized support and fan passion redirected on the road every other week.
Away supporters were initially barred from Bologna before the ban was overturned, yet nearly 4,000 still made the trip to the Dall’Ara in August.
©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. Lazio support at Sassuolo.
Then, more than 2,000 travelled to Udine (an 802-mile round trip) on a Monday night.
Only 500 tickets were allocated for Venezia, and 1,667 fans went to Turin. And then came Reggio Emilia.
“You’re my glory, my victory, my flag waving in the wind,” read the main banner in the Curva Nord, inspired by Aldo Donati’s 1981 anthem.
Barely two minutes in, flags and scarves were already swirling in unison as Kenneth Taylor opened the scoring of a frantic evening: eight goals, two missed penalties, a red card, and Romano Floriani Mussolini finding the net on the 104th anniversary of his great-grandfather’s March on Rome (Filippo Turati was one of his fiercest opponents—no prizes for guessing the Sassuolo goalkeeper’s surname).
Just like the previous weekend, Lazio spent a few hours alone at the top of the table before Inter claimed a hard-earned victory to pull level on points.
The two sides will not cross paths in the league until January, but there is the small matter of the Supercoppa at San Siro on 22 December—one of the last major fixtures at the historic ground before its scheduled demolition in 2031.
With the stadium split down the middle, at least 30,000 Lazio supporters will be ready to mobilize. Another Tuesday night, right before Christmas—only this time, with no nightmares in sight.
©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. Mapei Stadium, home of US Sassuolo.
©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. Mapei Stadium, home of US Sassuolo.
Federico is on X: @fedefarco and Instagram: @fede.farco.
