Derby della Capitale: AS Roma vs SS Lazio

Words: Federico Farcomeni

Images: Federico Farcomeni

Roma v Lazio was back for a late kick-off after six years, as the city entered its 25th Jubilee, preparing itself to welcome more than 30 million pilgrims in 2025.

The context was as blunt as some religious dogmas – sharpened poles, helmets, bats and knives were seized on the eve of the game. Roma fans reportedly hung a banner with swastikas addressing their rivals as Jews on the motorway.

Firecrackers exploded repeatedly around the ground, flares were thrown into the river as police vans formed blue flashing cordons separating accesses for both sets of fans and even used water cannons to repel attacks.

Around 2,000 police were deployed for the occasion and, once more, the Eternal Derby was not going to disappoint off the field as fans approached the Olimpico.

Despite some areas remaining unsold for safety reasons, attendance was circa 64,000 with more than 17,000 fans in their “away” end.

©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. Lazio fans arrive for the Derby.

Rome’s derby was once famous for the teasing more than the violence and this derby had it all for once.

Messages were unfurled on both ends. Roma’s Curva Sud repeatedly targeted the new solitary banner Lazio ultras have been starting to hang on away ends which reads “Maledetti Laziali” and virtually translates as “bloody Lazio fans” (literally “cursed”) which is how public opinion tends to reproach them.

White and sky blue (!) banners appeared in the Roma end showing multiple mockeries – “bloody 11 years in Serie B”, “bloody liars” and even “bloody result” and "bloody losers" as the final whistle approached.

Other big banners showed episodes of utter disrespect or violence towards Lazio players (Cervone vs Boksic, Zago vs Simeone, De Rossi vs Radu, G. Mancini vs Marusic).

Lazio ultras then went international when displaying a half-English banner stating “off-site students, tourists and blinded foreigners – AS Rome wasn’t built in a day”, hinting at the fact the club celebrates June 7 as their founding date whereas fans take to the streets on 22 July – an issue which will possibly need to be addressed ahead of the club’s centenary in two years’ time.

©Federico Farco/ Terrace Editon. Lazio flag vs Roma.

Only Palestine flags united both sets of fans, whilst a Greek flag paying tribute to Lazio’s origins (the colours were chosen in homage to the homeland of the Olympic Games) infuriated Panathinaikos ultras who had travelled to join forces with their Roma counterparts.

As kick-off approached, Lazio ultras exhibited a tifo with the waves of the sea and a white-and-sky blue vessel carrying over the hagiography of the club’s saints.

There was Luigi Bigiarelli at the helm (one of the nine founders, the one who started the whole club when his fiancée departed for Brussels and he was left alone in Rome with a big grief in his heart), Lieutenant Giorgio Vaccaro (who avoided the merger with AS Roma which has otherwise been imposed by the Fascist Regime in 1927), Tommaso Maestrelli (the legendary coach of the team who won the League in 1974), the late Sinisa Mihajlovic, Hall of Famer Vincenzo D’Amico and striker Giuliano Fiorini who netted the most important goal in the club's history (avoiding relegation to the third tier).

There were also depictions of fans Vincenzo Paparelli (killed by a rocket thrown from the Roma end in 1979), Gabriele Sandri and ultra leader Fabrizio Piscitelli aka "Diabolik" who were both shot dead in different circumstances.

The sentence at the bottom was taken from William Ernest Henley’s Invictus: “Since 1900, we are the masters of our fate, the captains of our soul!”

©Federico Farcomeni/ Terrace Edition. AS Roma tifo vs Lazio.

There was no poetry from Roma ultras instead as they decided to insist on the “Anti-Lazio” concept which had been carried over from previous derby win as Gianluca Mancini headed the winner and then celebrated after the final whistle waving two flags – one showing the “Anti-Lazio” text and the other one depicting a rat with Lazio’s colours on the background (there were at least four of five more in the whole stadium this time) – “today like yesterday”.

All this tension inevitably spilled onto the field as benches cleared twice and the game turned nasty towards the end, as Roma had already amassed a precious two-goal cushion in the first twenty minutes under the wise stewardship of Roma born-and-bred Claudio Ranieri.

Lazio’s pressure (68% ball possession) and repeated attempts (a total of 17) turned to nothing. Even Uefa Vice-President Zbigniew Boniek joined the celebrations making fun of his former team-mate at Roma, now Lazio coach Marco Baroni.

And just when it seemed to be over, Lazio launched the first of a series of their 125th anniversary celebrative videos showing a father and a son looking over Rome and the river Tiber. But hold on a second – the chant on the background was a famous Roma one!

Cue deletion of the post, insults and more ridicules as smarter guys had already saved it in their phones to edge rivals once more on Apri 13.