For the latest instalment in our Framed series, we headed too Italy and the Stadio Olympic to catch Lazio v Empoli and a Framed with a slightly different focus…
Our Framed series has always been about capturing a match from the ground level, offering a perspective to a game that differs from what you may see on TV for those that couldn’t be in attendance. It transports you pitch side, capturing the action and atmosphere and visually telling the story as a stadium comes alive with the energy of a match day. While for most games the focus is naturally on the action on the pitch and the fervour of the fans, for Lazio v Empoli there was a slightly different spin on proceedings. See, for this match, Lazio were wearing their new limited edition jersey from Mizuno, released in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the club’s first-ever Scudetto, won back on 12 May 1974 – exactly 50 years to the day of this Empoli match. And so it actually became more about celebrating that achievement through the presence of the shirt, and it therefore organically became the focal point of this instalment of Framed.
Sure, the result went Lazio’s way – a 2-0 win with goals from Patric and Matías Vecino ensuring that there was no dampener on the celebrations – but you couldn’t help but feel that the result was secondary to the occasion itself. As well as the players wearing the anniversary kit for the match, fans were also decked out accordingly in the special threads, ready for their penultimate home game of the 23/24 season.
As part of the occasion, with the players going through their paces prior to kick off, the home fans held aloft portraits of the heroes of ’74; a group of semi-known men, led by Tommaso “The Maestro” Maestrelli, that went on to conquer some of the great teams of the time.
Photography by Giacomo Cosua for Soccerbible.
