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.

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”.

 

 

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.

 

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