High-flying Lazio’s thrashing of Sassuolo marked by Mussolini’s first Serie A goal | Nicky Bandini

Serie A had its second scoreless draw of the season on Wednesday evening. Parma and Udinese were the culprits, though perhaps they can be allowed some grace. The game was not short on incident, Maduka Okoye saving a penalty for the Friulians, who had been on a six-game losing streak, midway through the second half. Mariano Troilo made a goalline clearance for Parma soon after.

An open, end-to-end game was made to look drab in the context of this bonkers campaign. While Parma and Udinese stymied one another at the Tardini, Milan came from behind to lead Bologna at San Siro. And then collapsing to a 4-2 defeat.

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The previous evening saw three matches played and 18 goals scored. Como recovered from 1-0 down after 80 minutes to beat Torino 3-1, with another star turn from Nico Paz. Roma fell behind at home to Cagliari, turned things around before half-time, conceded a late equaliser to Daniel Maldini, then won 4-2 anyway.

Breathless spectacle everywhere though most compelling of all were scenes at the Mapei Stadium, where Lazio smashed Sassuolo 6-2. Lazio were the away team. That much was told in the stands, where 10,000 of their fans had shown up with banners, flags and flares. More than the total attendance for their last home game against Parma, and a great deal louder. Despite the game taking place on a weeknight, almost five hours’ drive from Rome.

The mass boycott of Lazio’s home games, and the reasons for it, was covered by this column in September. It is the culmination of a years-long feud between organised supporters groups and the club’s owner Claudio Lotito. He stands accused of neglecting his football team and disrespecting fans in ways both broad and highly specific.

An unexpectedly brilliant set of results has done nothing to heal this rift. Lazio’s win over Sassuolo was their eighth in nine games, the only misstep coming in a 2-2 draw at home to Milan. They briefly sat atop Serie A on Tuesday night, before Inter pulled back level with an underwhelming win away to Venezia on Wednesday.

This has been Lazio’s best ever start to a season, and the joint-second best of any club in the Italian top-flight, surpassed only by their city rivals Roma in 2013-14 (Roma won 10 out of 10, and still finished behind Antonio Conte’s Juventus). Yet average attendances for their games at the Stadio Olimpico have collapsed, from the mid-40,000s earlier this decade to less than 30,000 last season and barely over 10,000 so far in this one.

To demonstrate the grievance is only with Lotito, and not the team itself, Lazio’s supporters have travelled in vast numbers to away games. They were doing it already in preseason, when thousands attended friendlies in Ascoli and Frosinone. A sense of gathering momentum reached new heights on Tuesday, when they outnumbered and outvoiced the home support.

An easier thing to do at the Mapei Stadium than elsewhere. Sassuolo are a modestly-supported club, representing a town of 40,000 people, whose home ground is not even in that town but 20 miles up the road in Reggio Emilia. Still, the noise and choreography of Lazio’s support was spectacular. At kick-off, the stadium roiled like a turbulent blue sea. A pair of banners stretched out across the full width of the away end with the message: “You are our glory, you are my victory, my flag in the wind.”

Then the chaos really took over. Kenneth Taylor gave Lazio the lead in just the second minute, punishing a half-clearance with a side-footed finish. After a video assistant referee check confirmed the goal, Sassuolo equalised almost immediately, an off-target shot by Kristian Thorstvedt deflected in via the shoulder of the defender Josip Sutalo.

Lazio were back in front by the 13th minute, Mattia Zaccagni cutting in from the left and squaring for Gustav Isaksen to finish. Moments later it was 3-1. Another story within the story, as Romano Floriani Mussolini – great-grandson of the former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini – scored his first Serie A goal.

The player, who wears the name “Romano” on his shirt, has said politics does not interest him, though his family’s history makes it hard to avoid. His mother, Alessandra, is a right-wing politician who has defended her grandfather’s legacy. At the time of Romano’s only previous professional goal, on loan for Juve Stabia in 2024, he was wearing “F. Mussolini” on his shirt, and some fans appeared to celebrate with fascist salutes.

Sassuolo were reduced to 10 men in the 31st minute, when Thorstvedt planted his studs into Zaccagni’s ankle. Despite this, they reduced the deficit before half-time through Sebastiano Esposito. Then Zaccagni extended it again, heading in a cross from Isaksen.

The second half was more one-sided. Tijjani Noslin smashed in a pair of goals from outside the box to complete Lazio’s win. The margin of victory could have been bigger. Stefano Turati saved a pair of penalties for Sassuolo, first from Zaccagni and then Davide Frattesi. A fun detail: in La Gazzetta dello Sport’s fantasy football system, this meant that, despite conceding six times, the keeper avoided a negative score.

As the final minutes ticked away, Lazio’s head coach Gennaro Gattuso allowed himself a moment. “I closed my eyes and imagined we were in a full Stadio Olimpico,” he said. “Ten thousand people travelling 300km on a Tuesday makes me happy.”

Of all the unlikely comebacks we have seen in Serie A lately, none could compare to that of a man whose last management position ended with a tearful apology to the nation after failing to qualify Italy for the World Cup in April. To say expectations were low for him at Lazio would be an understatement. His contract has a clause written into it guaranteeing an extension if the team finish as high as 12th.

Perhaps Lazio will not be able to sustain their momentum for a full campaign. Though Gattuso’s insistence they are still working toward top-flight safety is starting to ring hollow. Fans were – jokingly – in uproar after Frattesi broke a tradition of posting how many more points they needed to reach 40 on his Instagram stories after each win.

The simple truth is that Gattuso has got under the skin of his players and is getting more from this squad than anyone thought possible. Taylor, who also scored the opener in the win over Parma at the weekend, is emblematic. Gattuso chased him out of training one day in the summer, ordering him to the changing room for speaking out of turn. Last week, before these two goals, the manager singled the player out for praise, noting that he is pressing more consistently than he used to.

Similar stories of personal connection could be told for so many others. A phone call from Gattuso was said to have persuaded Zaccagni – perhaps the standout talent of Lazio’s last few years – to stay in the summer. Noslin appears to be blossoming in his new role as a centre-forward.

Sassuolo 2-6 Lazio, Roma 4-2 Cagliari, Torino 1-3 Como, Parma 0-0 Udinese

Venezia 0-2 Inter, Milan 2-4 Bologna, Genoa 2-0 Juventus, Monza 1-4 Napoli

It has added up to a run of results that nobody inside or outside the club could have imagined back when Lazio were losing their first competitive game of this season, 2-0 to the Serie B side Mantova in the Coppa Italia.

The only question hanging over this extraordinary story is whether Gattuso can do the truly unthinkable, and bridge the gap between the supporters at Lotito. “Of course I’ll talk to him,” said Gattuso on Tuesday. “He’s a very intelligent person, but the choices are his. I would love to see lots of fans at the stadium, but I can’t change their minds or the president’s. That’s a question for them.”

Pos Team P GD Pts 1 Inter Milan 9 15 25 2 Lazio 9 15 25 3 Roma 9 15 21 4 Como 9 9 20 5 AC Milan 9 7 18 6 Frosinone 8 4 14 7 Napoli 9 6 14 8 Juventus 9 1 14 9 Torino 9 0 13 10 Cagliari 9 -5 13 11 Bologna 9 0 11 12 Atalanta 8 -1 10 13 Genoa 9 -5 10 14 Lecce 8 -5 9 15 Sassuolo 9 -8 8 16 Monza 9 -6 7 17 Udinese 9 -9 5 18 Parma 9 -10 5 19 Fiorentina 8 -10 4 20 Venezia 9 -13 3