April 8, 2023: Lazio Juventus 2-1
- Simon Basten
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Magician’s touch
A wonderful back heel pass from Luis Alberto gives Lazio a priceless win
Also on this day:
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had changed manager, from Simone Inzaghi to Maurizio Sarri, and had had difficulties in adapting to a new style of play, from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3. The problems were particularly in defence, but in the second half of the season there was an improvement in set up and Lazio finished sixth, qualifying for the Europa League.
For the 2022-23 season there were new players: goalkeepers Luis Maximiano (Granada) and Ivan Provedel (Spezia), defenders Mario Gila (Real Castilla), Alessio Romagnoli (free agent) and Nicolò Casale (Verona), midfielders Marcos Antonio (Shakhtar) and Matias Vecino (free agent) plus forward Matteo Cancellieri (Verona). Leaving Lazio were Pepe Reina, Thomas Strakosha, Luiz Felipe and Lucas Leiva (contracts not renewed), Francesco Acerbi (loan to Inter), Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro (loan to Empoli), Raul Moro (loan to Ternana) and Jovane Cabral (end of loan).
At the end of the first half of the season Lazio were third in the company of Inter and Roma and one point behind Milan. Napoli had pulled away and had a 12-point lead. Lazio had beaten Inter, Roma, Atalanta and Milan.
They had arrived third in their Europa League group and were forced to play in the Conference League where they were later eliminated in the round of 16 by AZ Alkmaar. In Coppa Italia they had been eliminated in the quarter finals by Juventus.
In Serie A the Biancocelesti continued with their good form, beating Roma again and Napoli away. They were second with a five-point lead over Roma. Napoli were 16 points away and ready to celebrate their third scudetto.
The match: Saturday, April 8, 2023, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Maurizio Sarri decided to keep Danilo Cataldi in place of Matias Vecino and to put Ciro Immobile in the centre of the attack for the first time since his return from injury. A difficult match, this season Lazio had already lost against Juventus both in Serie A and in Coppa Italia.
Lazio started off well with quite a number of corners in the first few minutes. The Biancocelesti attacked trying to find a gap in Juve’s defence, but Juventus had similar problems when they attacked so the match was intense, lots of passes, but not a lot happened.
In the 5th minute Luis Alberto tried a shot from outside the box but Wojciech Szcesny saved comfortably. In the 10th and 12th minute Sergej Milinkovic-Savic had a couple of half chances but he headed both of them over the crossbar. Juventus resorted to deliberate handballs to stop the Lazio attacks, none of them booked.
In the 29th minute Felipe Anderson sent a high pass in the box for Immobile who, despite being covered by Alex Sandro, managed to acrobatically kick the ball towards the goal, Szczęsny saved.
In the 38th minute Mattia Zaccagni on the left wing moved slightly central and crossed into the box where Milinkovic-Savic placed a hand on Alex Sandro's back and the Brazilian then dived forward as if hit by a running train. The big Serb controlled the ball and scored. The referee and VAR said it was legitimate hence Lazio 1 Juve 0.
Juventus reacted immediately and had a corner. From the Angel De Maria perfect cross, Bremer headed the ball, Ivan Provedel saved, Adrien Rabiot tried the tap in but Provedel saved again. There was nothing the Lazio goalkeeper could do on the third attempt and Rabiot equalised.
At the end of the first half there was a very dangerous tackle by Manuel Locatelli on Milinkovic-Savic. The Juve player was booked, but it should have been a red card. Juan Cuadrado should have been sent off after ten minutes for two bookable offences but had yet to be shown the yellow card.
Juventus started the second half a little more aggressively compared to the first but Lazio still had the majority of possession. Cuadrado finally got booked in the 51st minute.
Two minutes later, Milinkovic-Savic to Felipe Anderson. Felipetto raced down the right wing and in the meantime, Luis Alberto did everything he could to attract the Brazilian’s attention since he was completely unmarked in the middle. Felipe looked as if he had not seen the Spaniard but as soon as he could he sent a low cross directly to Luis Alberto in the centre of the box. When the ball arrived, the Magician back heeled it to Zaccagni who put it past Szczęsny for Lazio’s second goal. Brilliant intuition. Apparently, they had tried this in training the day before.
Juventus considerably increased the pressure on the Lazio defence which pulled back and waited for the Bianconeri. In the 62nd minute Dusan Vlahovic headed the ball over the bar from an Alex Sandro cross.
First substitutions in the 63rd minute for Juventus. In came Leandro Paredes, Arkadiusz Milik and Federico Chiesa for Locatelli, Vlahovic and Filip Kostic. Shortly after, out went Ciro Immobile and Cataldi, in came Vecino and Pedro. In the 71st minute Danilo substituted Cuadrado.
The pressure continued but the Lazio defence, not without difficulty, held. In the 84th minute the biggest chance for Juve. Chiesa went down the Lazio right wing like a hot knife through butter and crossed towards the centre of the box, Nicolò Fagioli volleyed the ball over the bar.
Two last substitutions just before the end: Toma Basic in for Zaccagni and Fabio Miretti for Fagioli.
Lazio survived the final minutes and won the game. They had now beaten Napoli, Milan, Inter, Roma (twice), Atalanta, Bologna, Fiorentina and Juventus at least once each, the top 9 in Serie A. Second place confirmed, third was now five points behind.
Who played for Lazio
Provedel; Marusic, Casale, Romagnoli, Hysaj; Milinkovic-Savic, Cataldi (69' Vecino), Luis Alberto; Felipe Anderson, Immobile (64' Pedro), Zaccagni (84' Basic)
Substitutes: Maximiano, Adamonis, Pellegrini, Patric, Marcos Antonio, Cancellieri, Romero, Radu, Lazzari, Gila, Fares
Manager: Sarri
Who played for Juventus
Szczęsny; Gatti, Bremer, Alex Sandro; Cuadrado (69' Danilo), Fagioli (86' Miretti), Locatelli (63' Paredes), Rabiot, Kostic (63' Chiesa); Di Maria, Vlahovic (63' Milik)
Substitutes: Perin, Pinsoglio, Bonucci, Rugani, Soulè
Manager: Allegri (Marco Landucci was on the bench since Allegri was out with flu)
Referee: Di Bello
Goals: 38' Milinkovic-Savic, 42' Rabiot, 54' Zaccagni.
What happened next
Lazio finished second behind Napoli. To note is that Lazio had only come second three times before, 1936-37, 1994-95 and 1998-99, so this year’s result was a positive rarity in Lazio's history.
In the Conference League they were eliminated in the round of 16 by AZ Alkmaar. In Coppa Italia they had been eliminated in the quarter finals by Juventus.
The player with most appearances was Felipe Anderson (50) but Ivan Provedel was the player with most minutes (4361). Top scorer was Ciro Immobile with 14 goals.
One of the more positive things of the season were the 21 clean sheets. The defensive issue of the previous year was gone.
Let’s talk about Nicolò Casale
Nicolò Casale was born on February 14, 1998 in Negrar near Verona. He started playing for the Gialloblu at an early age and went up the youth sector ranks. From 2017 he began a number of loans out to lower tier clubs: six months with Perugia in Serie B, six with Prato (Serie C), a season with Südtirol, Venezia (in Serie B) and Empoli.
In 2021 he finally managed to make it back to Verona and completed a whole season in Serie A, impressing for his defensive qualities.
Lazio in the summer 2022 had to completely reconstruct their central defence with the departures of Francesco Acerbi and Luiz Felipe. Enter Alessio Romagnoli on a free transfer, but they still needed someone to put on the right. The club had tried to sign Casale the previous winter session but everything was postponed to the summer. The duo was fantastic and Lazio achieved second place in the 2022-23 season with 21 clean sheets.
2023-24 was not so good, particularly for Casale, the shadow of the player that he had been the previous season. It has been claimed that the false rumour that he was betting on Serie A games had a negative psychological effect on him. On August 30, 2024, after playing in both the first two games of the season, he was loaned out to Bologna with an option to buy. It is hoped that he can recharge his enthusiasm at Bologna and return to his previous levels.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Conference League |
2022-23 | 37 (1) | 29 (1) | 2 | | 2 | 4 |
2023-24 | 24 | 20 | 2 | 2 | - | - |
Aug 2024 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
Total | 63 (1) | 51 (1) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
Sources
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