Thursday, December 22, 2011

LOST TWO POINTS IN OLIMPICO TWICE!!

SERIE A 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 15 & 16
LAZIO 2 VS UDINESE 2
LAZIO 0 VS CHIEVO 0



Lazio had lost two points twice when they were playing in Olimpico against Udinese in Sunday and Chievo in Wednesday. Against Udinese, Lazio actually lead in the second half 2-1 until the ex player of biancoceleste Gian Piero Pinzi scored his equalizer goal. Senad Lulic and Miroslav Klose, once again showed up as the scorers for the Edy Reja's squad.

Just three days later after the matchday against Udinese, Lazio face the matchday 16 of Serie A. They still played in their home, Stadio Olimpico. But, the opponent they face now was Chievo Verona.

Actually, Lazio dominated this match over the guest team. But unfortunately, the imperfect finishing of Lazio players made some chances that they had, gain nothing. Edy Reja, even said that match against Chievo was the worst match that Lazio ever played this season.

Then, finally Lazio ended this year with two draw results that brought them only two points. Lazio still held on the fourth position behind the capolista Juventus and Milan with 4 points gap. Udinese on the third position with 2 points gap with Lazio.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

ADVANCE THROUGH THE NEXT ROUND!!


EUROPA LEAGUE 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 6
LAZIO 2 VS SPORTING LISBON 0

Lazio: Albano Benjamin Bizzarri, Giuseppe Biava, Mobido Diakite, Luis Pedro Cavanda, Cristian Ledesma, Lorik Cana (Alvaro Gonzals 53'), Senad Lulic,, Hernanes, Djibril Cissé, Giuseppe Sculli, Libor Kozak (Miroslav Klose 85')

Sporting Lisbon: Boeck Marcelo, Oguchi Onyewu (Joao Mario 76'), Santos Fabiano Evaldo, Tiago Ilori, Stijn Schaars (Filipe Daniel Carrico 69'), Marques Alexandre Bruno Pereirinha, Filipe Andre Santos, Renato Andre Martins, Valeri Bojinov, Diego Rubio (Emiliano Insua 65'), Andre Carrillo. 

Lazio finally advance through the next round of Europa League this season. In the last matchday, Lazio had a really good luck! They had a victory over Sporting and also had a good result in another match of the group D. Yes, their rival in this group Vaslui had defeated by the switzerland FC Zurich.

Before the match, Lazio had the toughest of paths if the team wanted to advance from the group stage of Europa League and avoid another humiliating early exit. Not only was a win needed against the strongest side of the group, but also an already eliminated FC Zurich had to get a result against Romanians Vaslui, the team that would kick Lazio out of the tournament with a win in Switzerland.

In this match, coach Edy Reja played some secondary players, even primavera players. He took the strategy because he had to keep the starting players fresh until the match against Udinese in Serie A. But, it could not avoid Lazio to gain a victory over the Portuguese team. Lazio got the scores from Libor Kozak in the first half and Giuseppe Sculli in the second half.


After the draw for the next round match of Europa League, Lazio announced that they will face the Spanish giant Atletico Madrid. Atletico had already met another Italian club Udinese in the group stage before. The first leg will be played at Olimpico in Rome on 16 February 2012, then one week later, Edy Reja's men will travel to Madrid for the second leg on 23 February.

Last time Lazio played Atletico Madrid was in the UEFA Cup in 1997-98. Lazio beat Atletico Madrid in the semi finals 1-0 over two legs with a goal from Vladimir Jugovic. Lazio and Atletico Madrid have also had some great players in common. Players like Cristian Vieri, Diego Simeone, Vladimir Jugovic & Matías Lequi have played for both clubs.

If Lazio should beat Atletico Madrid over two matches they will play the winner from Besiktas and Sporting Braga.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

DEAD OR ALIVE...!!!


EUROPA LEAGUE 2011/2012
LAZIO VS SPORTING LISBON


Lazio will face the decisive matchday in Europa League tonight. In Olimpico, Lazio will face the Portuguese Sporting Lisbon in the last matchday of group D. But, the problem for Lazio is three points are not enough to advance through the next round. Lazio still needs the supported result in the other game between Zurich and Vaslui.

In the classification of group D, Lazio now collect the same point with the Romanian Vaslui. But, Vaslui lead on the second place because they have head to head leading with Lazio. So, eventhough Lazio success to gain a victory over Sporting, it would be useless if Vaslui also gain a victory over Zurich. In this last matchday, Lazio need to win and hope that Vaslui will fail to gain a victory over Zurich.

The other problem is about the selection of players for this match. Should Edy Reja play the full strength or should he rest players that have been playing frequently lately? With Udinese waiting on Sunday night, in a game crucial for the rest of the domestic campaign, we can argue that this is a dilemma which Edy Reja should face...

BAD PERFORMED MATCH WITH A VICTORY

Lorik Cana
SERIE A 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 14
LECCE 2 VS LAZIO 3


Miroslav Klose
Lecce: Massimiliano Benassi, Stefano Ferrario, Nenad Tomovic (Manuel Giandonato 47), Djamel Mesbah, Massimo Oddo, Ruben Olivera, Guillermo Giacomazzi, Christian Obodo, David Di Michele, Juan G. Cuadrado (Carlos Grossmüller  56), Luis Murial (Ignacio Piatti 81)

Lazio: Federico Marchetti (Juan Pablo Carrizo 62), Giuseppe Biava (Lorik Cana 46), Mobido Diakite, Stefan Radu, Marius Stankevicius, Cristian Ledesma, Hernanes, Senad Lulic, Alvaro Gonzslez, Miroslav Klose, Tommaso Rocchi (Djibril Cisse 46)

Lazio continued their journey in Serie A in matchday 14 of Serie A last saturday. Lazio had to go to Lecce to face the home team who had just replaced their coach from Eusebio DiFrancesco to Serse Cosmi recently.

Marchetti's injury
In this match, Lazio gained another victory to collect more three points in classification. But, unlike the several match before, this time the defense line showed their bad performance. While the forward line saved this victory through Miroslav Klose with his two goals. What's wrong with Lazio's defense?

Luckily, The goalkeeper Federico Marchetti was also showed his best performance to keep the goal of Lazio. He saved several Lecce's important chances to threat Lazio's goal. But, his struggle ended when He got an injury in second half. His position replaced by Juan Pablo Carrizo.

Klose's first goal
Lecce got lead first through penalty kick of David DiMichele. But, Miroslav Klose equalized the scored after he received an assist from Mobido Diakite. With an average performance in this match, surprisingly Lazio got lead through Lorik Cana used the assist from Miroslav Klose. This is his first goal with Lazio shirt! Lecce not given up, and finally they could equalize the score through Ferrario's heading. The score was 2-2!

Cana's first goal
Miroslav Klose
With only three minutes remaining from the normal time, Miroslav Klose once again showed up as the savior with his goal to take a victory for Lazio. It started from Djibril Cisse, who sent a crossing to the centre of Lecce's defense. Klose jumped and headed the ball. The Lecce's goalkeeper Massimiliano Benassi could not reach the ball and that was the third goal of Lazio! 2-3 for Lazio's victory.

Lazio now still on the fourth position, but there is progress. Now, Lazio only have two points gap with the capolista Juventus and Udinese. Lazio also have the same point with the third postion Milan. Lazio's chance to after the capolista position is more widely open. Forza Lazio!!

Edy Reja's men

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

IL CAPITANO E TORNATO!!


SERIE A 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 13
LAZIO 3 VS NOVARA 0


Lazio: Federico Marchetti, Marius Stankevicius, Giuseppe Biava, Stefan Radu, Abdoulay Konko (Lionel Scaloni 82), Cristian Ledesma, Hernanes (Lorik Cana 64), Senad Lulic, Alvaro González, Miroslav Klose, Tommaso Rocchi (Djibril Cisse 78)

Novara: Samir Ujkani, Carlo Alberto Ludi, Matteo Centurioni, Santiago Garcia, Michel Morganella, Ivan Radovanovic (Simon Pesce 55), Marco Rigoni, Andrea Mazzarani (Luigi Giorgi 76), Filippo Porcari, Pablo Granoche (Jeda 63), Raffaele Rubino


Il capitano e tornato!! Yes, The captain is back!! Tommaso Rocchi scored two goals for Lazio in matchday 13 of Serie A last night. Played in their own home, Lazio took down the guest team Novara 3-0.

After several dissapointed results before this match, finally Lazio presented a victory to their fans in home. In this match, Lazio dominated the game.It was only need 15 minutes to create a nice chance. Received a through pass from Senad Lulic, Tommaso Rocchi was on position to score the opening goal. But unfortunately, he missed the chance.The Novara goalkeeper, Samir Ujkani blocked the ball.

Biava's Goal
Lazio opened the score one minute after Rocchi's gold chance. Giuseppe Biava succeed to create his first goal of the season. He converted Hernanes' corner into a goal through his heading. Lazio then added the second goal in minute 23 through the captain Tommaso Rocchi. Once more, the goal created by heading. But, this time the goal was converted from Cristian Ledesma's free kick by Rocchi. The first half ended with Lazio's lead 2-0.

Lazio still dominated in the second half. They got some chances, but could'nt result into a goal until minute 72. Alvaro Gonzales sent the ball to Rocchi, then with his right foot the captain created his second goal in this match. Six minutes later, Djibril Cisse in to substituted the captain. Cisse got a chance to make the score 4-0 but unfortunately, the ball only hit the post.

Well, finally Lazio return to their real form in this match. The forward line had done their good job. As same as the defense line. Federico Marchetti, again presented a clean sheet in this match. He keeps the briliant goalkeeping until now. The midfielders also did a good job. Hernanes, Ledesma and Gonzales created all of the assists. With this result,  Lazio held on the fourth position with 25 points behind the capolista holder Juventus (29 points) and the second place Milan and Udinese (27 points).


Sunday, December 4, 2011

CISSE APOLOGIZE TO LAZIALE


After the match against Vaslui in Europa League, Lazio forward Djibril Cisse expressed his frustration through Twitter. He called all the people who criticize him with bad words like idiots, haters and ****ers.

Actually, Cisse’s career at Lazio started very well. He scored a goal against Milan in the opener match of Serie A and the qualification of Europa League against Rabotnicki, made couple of assists, but over all people are expecting more from him. He is also not scored although it's just one goal recently. All this is getting to him and it led to the Twitter tweet.

But, now the French Lion uses the same media (Twitter) to clear all the things out: “I never insulted the fans of Lazio and I will never do it. They have supported me and still are. And to the real fans I want to say I will never do to you anything bad, I respect you and will fight for you until the end! Forza Lazio for ever!”

PRIMAVERA: ASCOLI 0 VS LAZIO 3

LAZIO: Mosciatti, Ilari, Serpieri, Vilkaitis, Sbraga, Zampa, Barreto, Cilfone, Tira (15' Rozzi), Cataldi (38’ De Francesco), Emmanuel (42’ Vivacqua).

Although played without some injured players, Lazio junior squad gained a victory against Ascoli in the opponent's home.Danilo Cataldi and Antonio Rozzi scored in the first half for Biancoceleste. While Gonzalo Barreto scored in the second half to made the score 0-3. for the winning of the guest team.

DRAW IN ROMANIA...

EUROPA LEAGUE 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 5
VASLUI 0 VS LAZIO 0

Once again, a dissapointed result gained by Lazio in Europa League Championship this season. In the last matchday against Vaslui in Romania, Lazio only gained one point from a draw result.

From this match, I conclude that the forward line of Lazio had a problem!! Lazio actually dominated this match eventhough they played in opponent's home. But, no goal gained by the Edy Reja's squad.
 

With this result, both of Lazio and Vaslui collect the same point in the classification of group D. Vaslui have to win against FC Zurich in the next matchday if they want to get through accompany the group leader, Sporting Lisbon. While Lazio need to strugglle hardly because they have to face Sporting in the last matchday of this group.

Edy Reja no need to be worry about the defense line because Federico Marchetti is going on to show his world class goalkeeping to keep the Lazio's goal clear. Reja needs to give attention more to the forward line because if they want to win, the forward line must to play like a hungry predator in that match.


Sunday, November 27, 2011

JUNIOR DERBY DELLA CAPITALE!!

PRIMAVERA CHAMPIONSHIP
LAZIO 3 VS ROMA MERDA 3

LAZIO(4-3-3): Scarfagna; Ilari (73’ Cilfone), Crescenzi, Sbraga,Salustri; Onazi, Zampa, Cavanda; Ceccarelli (83’ Tira), Emmanuel(46’ Rozzi), Barreto

ROMA(4-2-3-1): Pigliacelli; Romagnoli, Nego, Arba, Ceccarelli (62’Sabelli); Viviani, Verre; Caprari, Ciciretti (52’ Massimo),Piscitella; Leonardi (83’ Tallo)

Let's forget about the senior team of Lazio's defeat over Juventus last night for a while. Let's see the junior squad in Primavera championship this week who faced the derby against the eternal rival, Roma Merda.
Lazio Junior hosted their rival at Formello this week. As same as the Senior team derby, this match is really important for both of the team. Roma Merda took the lead after only 5 minutes with goal from Ciciretti. In the 17th minute Gonzalo Barreto managed to beat the Roma Merda defence, and alone with their goalkeeper Pigliacelli he made no mistakes. It only took Roma Merda 1 minute to answer, and the Lazio's defence was caught off guard when Roma Merda again took the lead with Leonadri. Then after 23 minutes the promising Caprari made it even worse. Before half time Barreto again showed his positioning when he found himself alone with the Roma Merda goalkeeper again, and gave the biancocelesti some new hope.

In the second half, Lazio struggled to find the net. The goal finally came in the 88th minute with a header from Cilffone. In this match, captain Luca Crescenzi was sent off right after that. This derby match ended with a highly entertaining draw.

THE SECOND LOST...


SERIE A 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 12
LAZIO 0 VS JUVENTUS 1

Lazio: Marchetti, Konko, Diakite, Stankevicius, Radu, Brocchi (46' Gonzalez), Ledesma, Lulic (72' Sculli), Hernanes, Klose, Rocchi (64' Cisse).

Juventus: Buffon, Lichsteiner, Bonucci, Barzagli, Chiellini, Vidal, Pirlo, Marchisio, Pepe 81' Estigarribia), Vucinic (66' Giaccherini), Matri (84' Quagliarella). 

Lazio faced the second lost this season when Juventus defeated biancoceleste with only one goal through a quick counter attack. Watching the match in first half, I really dissapointed with Lazio's playing. Dominated by the guest team in whole first half made me very curious... What happened with Lazio??

In first half, Lazio only had a few chance to score a goal. The best chance occured through Tomasso Rocchi who found himself one on one with Juventus' goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. But the captain couldn't beat the Italian first goalkeeper. Then, Juventus gained the opening goal through Simone Pepe in minute 34. Through a quick counter attack, Alessandro Matri on the left side outran Abdoulay Konko and found Simone Pepe inside the area and with only Marchetti left to beat, Pepe made no mistake and put his team ahead ten minutes from half time.


In second half, Lazio played better to get the equalize goal. But, Lazio still couldn't gain it because Buffon showed his superb performance in that match. He actually lost a chance to save his goal when Hernanes' super shot almost meet his net. But, unfortunately for Lazio the ball only strike the post.

Until the referee blowed up the whistle, Lazio still couldn.t make the equalize goal. With this result, Lazio held on the third position. If Milan gain a victory tonight, then Lazio will go down to the fourth position with only 22 points from 12 matches.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

MARCHETTI'S OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE AGAINST NAPOLI

SERIE A 2011/2012 MATCHDAY 11
NAPOLI 0 VS LAZIO 0
Napoli: De Sanctis, Campagnaro, Cannavarro, Aronica, Maggio, Dzemaili (58’ Gargano), Inler, Dossena (73’ Pandev), Hamsik. Lavezzi, Cavani.

Lazio: Marchetti, Konko (51’ Scaloni), Diakite, Stankevicius, Radu, Brocchi, Ledesma, Lulic, Hernanes (51’ Matuzalem), Sculli (83’ Gonzalez), Cisse. 

Lazio faced Napoli in their latest fixture of Serie A. Actually, I did satisfy enough with this result. But, if you see the overall of the match, Lazio looked like they were not a giant over Napoli.

Went on to Naples, Edy Reja's squad faced the home team with higher position on the classification. But, it couldn't prove that Lazio was more superior than the opponent. In this match, Lazio failed to show their best performance. Unlike Napoli that showed their good performance.

 

Mazzari's squad created several dangerous chances to Lazio's net. Luckily, Lazio have Federico Marchetti as the goalkeeper this season. I think, the only reason for Lazio to gain a point from this game is briliant performance of Marchetti in this game. The Italian national goalkeeper once again, showed his world class goalie skills. He continued to save the Lazio's net from the opponent's attack for several times.

While according to lazioland.com, coach Edy Reja spoke in the mix zone, “The team showed great character and temperament, especially in the first half. In the second half Napoli did a lot better, but Marchetti was unstoppable. We did very well especially in the midfield and defense. During the match we had injuries to Sculli, Brocchi, Cissé and Konko. We were already missing many players and the boys did great and this is an important result. To not concede any goals in Napoli shows that we have grown.”

 
 
 
Still taken from lazioland.com, after this match Federico Marchetti admits his aim is to make it on the Italian national team list. “We were in trouble, but the team still had a great game. We suffered, we were crushed, but we still managed to defend against the attacks of Napoli. We believed until the end. This tie was important, it allows us to move forward with confidence. We are giving valuable answers and if we are still on top come March we can even do a little bit of thinking on the Scudetto”. Then he continued: “I want to do well at Lazio. I come from a difficult season and I want to get back on the level I was before being benched for a year. I was a part of the Italian national team and came out for absurd reasons. Now game after game I will try to impress Prandelli and redeem my spot at the National team”.
 
 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

ANOTHER VICTORY IN HOME


Lazio: Marchetti, Konko, Diakite, Dias, Radu, Brocchi, Ledesma, Lulic (46’ Sculli), Hernanes (77’ Gonzalez), Cisse (83’ Kozak), Klose.
Parma: Mirante, Zaccardo, Paletta, Lucarelli, Gobbi, Biabiany, Galloppa (80’ Blasi), Morrone, Modesto, Giovinco (48’ Valiani), Pelle.


Another victory was presented by the Edy Reja's squad to their fans in home. Lazio succeeded to gain a victory from the late goal of Giuseppe Sculli in minute 85. In matchday 10 of Serie A this season, Lazio faced Parma in their own home, Olimpico.



Before this match started, you can see that the president of Lazio, Claudio Lotito gave an award to the captain Tomasso Rocchi for his achievement on 100th goal for Biancoceleste in his carreer.

After first half was ended with no goal, Lazio failed to show a superiority over the guest. Lazio really had a horrible second half, with important pieces for the attack being far from convincing. Hernanes couldn't create any chances, Sculli had an awful 45 minutes, Klose looked far from hungry of goal and Cisse, again like the matches before, continued to waste balls missing long range shots or crosses. As the half went on, Lazio looked like run out of ideas. They looked like don't know how to gain a victory as same as the several previous matches.

But finally, when the match reached 85 minutes the sole goal had been occured. It began with Klose went on a good run inside the penalty area and found Kozak who was in a central position. While Parma's goalkeeper Mirante out of position,  Kozak had an open goal, but Zaccardo got back and saved the ball on the goal line. Luckily, Sculli was the closest player to the ball and made no mistake in scoring from less than a meter out.

I don't know if this result is a fortune for Lazio, but I do really happy with this result. With the postponed match between Napoli and Juventus, Lazio now is running behind Udinese on the second position with 21 points as same as the capolista holder.

 

Friday, November 4, 2011

AGAINST PARMA, LAZIO WILL HAVE THE SANDRI FOUNDATION LOGO ON THEIR SHIRT

Gabriele Sandri


Three days remaining, Lazio will faced Parma in home. Lazio, certainly have to get more victory to collect more points in order to get closer with the capolista Juventus. But, there will be something special in that match.

In the game against Parma, Lazio will have the logo of the Sandri foundation on the shirts in tribute to Gabrielle Sandri. To get closer to the day when the incident which was Sandri involved in 2007, maybe Lazio want to present a tribute to the 26 year old Laziale when he died. Gabriele Sandri, is a Lazio fan, who was killed at a service station at Arezzo. He was on his way to Milano, to follow Lazio playing Inter away. Because of that incident, his name will be always in Laziale's heart.

 Sandri Foundation

Lazio's 35 year old anchor, Christian Brocchi promises to give his best: "This is very important for us, the issue of Gabrielle is felt very strongly amongst the players. We will try to honor him by giving our best." He also told that Lazio will struggle to get the victory against Parma, "I will not talk about a win against Parma because we always jinx ourselves when we do, but I can tell you that Parma is a tough team and we have to face them with a must win attitude. When you are high in the standings, you will do everything to stay there."

FINALLY... THE FIRST VICTORY IN EUROPA LEAGUE THIS SEASON!!


Lazio: Federico Marchetti, Luciano Zauri (Abdoulay Konko 78), Stefan Andrei Radu, Andre Dias, Mobido Diakite, Cristian Ledesma, Lorik Cana, Senad Lulic (Christian Brocchi 46), Giuseppe Sculli, Miroslav Klose (Djibril Cisse 46), Tommaso Rocchi.

FC Zurich: Johnny Leoni, Mathieu Beda, Koch Philippe, Ricardo Rodriguez, Jorge Teixeira, Silvan Aegerter, Dusan Djuric (Marco Schonbachler 76), Yassine Chikhaoui (Ludovic Magnin 61), Chaker Zouaghi, Alexandre Alphonse, Admir Mehmedi (Amine Chermiti 66).


 Lazio gained their first victory in Europa League this season last night. With the pressure to keep the hopes up for advancing to the knock out stages of the Europa League, Lazio faced the Switzerland representatives in the matchday 4. FC Zurich came to Olimpico with a condition as same as Lazio. They only collect 2 points until matchday 3, with only draw twice and lost once.

In the first half, FC Zurich looked have more impressive play and Lazio again looked lacking energy and quality to get their first victory. Edy Reja finally gave Luciano Zauri to get his starting line up chance again, but He, again wasted it out. The first half showed the domination of Zurich. They tested Federico Marchetti in goal for several times. But, Marchetti showed his excellent performance. He successed to keep his goal with a clean sheet last night. 

Then, as the second half had been started, Lazio slowly grew into the game and FC Zurich never got back to the same dominance again in this match. Lazio started the second half with two player exchanges. Djibril Cisse was in to replace Klose and Christian Brocchi replaced the bosnian Lulic. I think these were excellent subtitutions who finally changed the match. In minute 62, Christian Brocchi got a cross flicked back to him by Cisse just outside the FC Zurich penalty area, and the midfielder struck the ball. On its way to goal the ball was deflected and Zurich's goalkeeper JohnnyLeoni stood no chance of saving the shot. 1-0 for Lazio!

 Brocchi scored a goal

  Brocchi's goal celebration
 
These three points are important to save the chance to advance through the next stage of the tournament.With this result, Lazio on the second position of Group D with only goal gap leading with Vaslui. On the other match in this group, Sporting Lisbon surprisingly took down by Vaslui. Then, started from now Vaslui will be the serious rival for Lazio to accomplish Sporting as the representative of group D to advance through the next stage of this tournament.

 Final Result