A good start after summer of love
Three months of celebrating derby cup win were over but Lazio get win on league debut
Also on this day: August 25, 2019, Sampdoria Lazio 0-3. Lazio outclass Sampdoria with an Immobile brace and a goal by Correa. A brief history of Sampdoria
The season so far
The previous season Lazio finished 7th but had experienced the wild joy of winning the Coppa Italia beating city rivals Roma in the final.
The cup lifting manager had been confirmed but there had been some changes to the squad. The main arrivals in the summer were Albanian goalkeeper Etrit Berisha (Kalmar), young Brazilian attacking midfielder Felipe Anderson (Santos) and Argentine midfielder Lucas Biglia (Anderlecht).
There were more players leaving than arriving. It was goodbye to goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri (Genoa), defender Modibo Diakité (Sunderland), midfielders Pasquale Foggia (Dubai Club), Danilo Cataldi (Crotone-loan), strikers Libor Kozak (Aston Villa) and Mauro Zarate (Vélez Sarsfield).
This season under Vladimir Petkovic had not started so positively and Lazio lost the Super Coppa final 4-0 against a vastly superior Juventus. This however was the Serie A opener and Lazio were keen to kickoff well.
Udinese had finished a positive 5th (Europa League) the previous season under Francesco Guidolin. Top scorer had been Antonio Di Natale with 26 goals (23 in league).
This year Guidolin had stayed on but there had been some small changes to the squad. The main players arriving were keeper Francesco Benussi (Palermo), defender Thomas Heurtaux (Granada), midfielders Andrea Lazzari (Fiorentina-on loan), and midfielders future Man United star Bruno Fernandes (Novara), Silvan Widmer (Granada-on loan) and Allan (Granada-on loan). Udinese and Granada had the same owner.
Leaving were, amongst others, keeper Samir Handanovič (Inter), defenders Mehdi Benatia (Roma), Marco Cassetti (Watford), Marco Angella (Watford), midfielders Juan Cuadrado (Fiorentina), Pablo Armero (Napoli), former Lazio and local boy Davide Faraoni (Watford) plus attacker Diego Fabbrini (Watford). Yes, you guessed it, Udinese and Watford had the same owner…
A difficult debut for Lazio against Udinese who had several good players in their squad; apart from the new signings, they had defenders Danilo, future Lazio Dušan Basta, Emmanuel Badu, midfielders Roberto Pereyra, Piotr Zieliński plus strikers Antonio Di Natale and Luis Muriel. The "Zebrette" (The Little Zebras) also had two players who had come out of Lazio’s youth sector, Maurizio Domizzi and Giampiero Pinzi.
The Bianconeri had been heavily defeated 1-3 at home mid-week by Slovan Liberec in the Europa League.
The match: Sunday, August 25, 2013, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
The game did not bring the fans back from the beaches in droves, only 25,000 were present this evening.
Lazio wore shirts saying "We Love Football We Fight Racism" in an attempt to shed their reputation of having a racist fan base. In fact the Curva Nord was closed due to the usual minority of idiots booing against Juventus' black players in the recent Supercup.
Lazio surprisingly opted for a central defensive partnership of Diego Martin Novaretti and Lorik Cana while in midfield Lucas Biglia was preferred to Cristian Ledesma.
Lazio dominated from the start and after five minutes hit a post with Antonio Candreva. Lazio attacked continuously and a minute later Álvaro Gonzalez went close with a header from a Luis Pedro Cavanda cross.
Lazio's positive start bore its fruits in the 13th minute. Hernanes went down the left wing and cut into the area before releasing an incredible left footed strike into the top hand corner from a seemingly unlikely angle. Lazio 1 Udinese 0.
There were still no signs of life from the Friulani and in the 16th minute Lazio had a penalty. Candreva put Miroslav Klose through and the German was pulled down by the keeper just inside the area on the left. Candreva took it and sent the keeper the wrong way with a low shot to the right. Lazio 2 Udinese 0.
Lazio showed no intention of relenting and a Stefan Radu header went wide before Hernanes almost made it three again but his low, long range left-footed shot was saved into corner by Kelava.
All Udinese could muster was a free kick from the left wing which was something between a shot and a cross and Federico Marchetti punched it away from the top corner.
Then it was Lazio again. A brilliant one -two with Gonzalez put Klose in front of goal but "Miro-gol " uncharacteristically hammered it wide and high. Halftime Lazio cruising and 2-0 up.
During the break the Bianconeri replaced an off form Di Natale with Maicosuel while Lazio changed injured defender Lorik Cana for André Dias.
Not much changed however and the second half started with a low Hernanes free kick which was parried by the keeper and then Senad Lulic couldn't find the target on the rebound.
On 50 minutes more chances for Lazio. Lulic to Candreva on the left, the Roman then squared it back to the Bosnian on the penalty spot but his shot was blocked by a defender. The move then continued and Candreva tried a curling shot from the left side of the area and it turned but not quite enough and went wide.
After an hour of total annihilation, Udinese struck out of the blue. A ball out of defence found Muriel completely unmarked just over the half way line, the Colombian took it forward and cleverly chipped Marchetti coming off his line. So in the 60th minute Lazio 2 Udinese 1 and the game changed completely. Just as the visitors seemed to be on the verge of collapse they suddenly found new belief and energy after being outplayed for an hour.
Udinese piled forward but in truth only had two real goal scoring opportunities. One came almost immediately after the goal and this time Andrea Lazzari was put through in the area but Marchetti came off his line with perfect timing and dived at Lazzari's feet deflecting the ball and saving the result. Then with fifteen minutes to go Piotr Zieliński misfired from a favourable position after André Dias was naively dispossessed by Maicosuel.
Lazio tired and made further substitutions but managed to hold firm during a tense final minutes plus six of added time. Final score Lazio 2 Udinese 1.
A promising first hour for Lazio and then a worrying last half hour. They had utterly dominated the midfield and the game until one defensive slip seemed to dent their confidence. Hopefully it was also due to physical tiredness so early in the season, in fact Udinese had faded too in the last ten minutes or so.
Stand out players today were goal scorers Candreva and in particular Hernanes.
Who played for Lazio
Marchetti, Cavanda, Novaretti, Cana (46' Dias), Radu, A. Gonzalez (78' Onazi), Biglia, Hernanes, Lulic, Candreva, Klose (83' Floccari)
Manager: Petkovic
Who played for Udinese
Kelava, Naldo, Danilo, Domizzi, Basta, Pereyra (59' Lazzari), Pinzi (69' Zieliński), Badu, Pasquale, Maicosuel, Di Natale (46' Muriel)
Substitutes: Benussi, Scuffet, Heurtaux, Coda, Gabriel Silva, Allan, Lopez
Manager: Guidolin
Referee: Gervasoni
Goals: 13' Hernanes, 16' Candreva (pen), 60' Muriel
What happened next
Lazio did not have a great season. A week later they got thumped 1-4 by Juventus and two games later lost the derby 0-2. Vladimir Petković, despite the 26th May heroics, was sacked in December before the Christmas break after a heavy 1-4 defeat away to Verona. He had already agreed terms to coach the Swiss national team from July which did not help things.
Edy Reja took over and Lazio improved, finishing 9th, beating Inter and drawing with Roma, Juve and Milan. Top scorer was Candreva with 12 league goals.
In the Europa League Lazio came second in their group topped by Trabzonspor but ahead of Legia Warsaw and Apollon Limassol. In the Round of 32 however the Biancocelesti were eliminated 3-4 on aggregate by Bulgarians Ludogorets to an 88th minute Juninho Quixadá goal.
In the Coppa Italia Lazio went out in the quarter-finals 0-1 away to Napoli to a late Higuain winner.
A disappointing post 2013 derby triumph season for Lazio.
Udinese too had a poor season. They ended up 13th, after 12 wins (including Milan), 8 draws and 18 defeats (including Lazio 2-3 in Udine). The Friulani's top scorer was Di Natale with 20 goals (17 in the league).
In the Europa League they were unable to remedy the home defeat to the Slovaks, Slovan Liberec, only drawing the return match 1-1.
In the Coppa Italia the Bianconeri reached the semi-finals after eliminating Inter and Milan but succumbed to Fiorentina 2-3 on aggregate.
It would be Francesco Guidolin's last season in Friuli.
The Scudetto was won by Juventus for the 30th time. Going down a level were Livorno, Bologna and Catania. Top scorer was future Lazio Ciro Immobile with 22 goals for Torino.
Lazio 2013-14
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 38 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 54 |
Coppa Italia | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 2 |
Europa League | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 11 |
Super Coppa | 1 | - | - | 1 | - |
Total | 49 | 19 | 15 | 15 | 67 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League | Super Coppa |
Candreva | 44 | 37 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Onazi | 40 | 29 | 2 | 8 | 1 |
Lulic | 37 | 30 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Keita Balde | 35 | 25 | 2 | 8 | - |
Ledesma | 34 | 27 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Top five goal scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
Candreva | 12 | 12 | - | - |
Klose | 8 | 7 | - | 1 |
Lulic | 7 | 7 | - | - |
Keita Balde | 6 | 5 | - | 1 |
Perea | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
Let's talk about Diego Novaretti
Diego Novaretti was born in La Palestina, Argentina, on May 9, 1985.
He is of Italian origin, like many Argentinians and grew up in the Belgrano youth sector. He made his debut for "Los Piratas" in 2003 and ended up staying six years with 113 appearances and 7 goals.
In 2009 he moved to Mexico and joined Toluca. He stayed with "Los choriceros" for four seasons, winning the league in 2010. He played 160 games with 8 goals.
In 2013 he made a surprise move to Lazio. The manager was Vladimir Petkovic and Lazio were still on a high following their previous season's Coppa Italia triumph against bitter rivals Roma. Lazio however had a difficult season and replaced Petkovic with Edy Reja after 17 games. Novaretti played 11 league games, 2 in the Coppa Italia and 4 in the Europa League. He had to compete with Michaël Ciani, André Dias, Giuseppe Biava, Lorik Cana and Stefan Radu for playing time, so it was not easy. In the end Lazio finished 9th.
In 2014 Stefano Pioli arrived as new manager. Central defenders Dias (retired) and Biava (end of contract) left but Stefan de Vrij (Feyenoord) and Santiago Gentiletti (San Lorenzo) arrived. Novaretti played even less, 5 league games and 2 in Coppa Italia. Lazio however had an excellent season and finished 3rd (CL preliminary). They reached the Coppa Italia final but lost 1-2 to Juventus.
In 2015 Novaretti went back to Mexico and joined León. In his first two seasons for "Los Esmeraldas" (The Emeralds) he played 67 games with 5 goals. In his third he only stayed until January after playing 10 games.
He left the "Panzaverdes" but stayed in Mexico and joined Querétaro. He played that half season and the season after with "Los Gallos Blancos" (The White Roosters) totalling 38 games with 1 goal.
In 2019 her returned to his homeland of Argentina and joined Rosario Central. He played 18 games for the "Canallas" (Rogues), the club originally formed in 1889 as Central Argentine Railway Athletic Club.
In 2021 however he moved back to his beloved Belgrano and has since played 63 games with 1 goal for "Los Celestes".
Novaretti is a big central defender. At 1.94 and 86 kilos he is physically imposing. He is one of many Argentinians (José Antonio Chamot just one example) to be nicknamed "El Flaco" (The Skinny One). He is predictably good in the air and a solid tackler but in Italy he was too slow and mechanical in his movements and never really held down a regular place in the team. In his second year with the arrival of world class defender De Vrij he was gradually phased out at Lazio. He made a total of 24 appearances over two seasons in Rome.
He has had a solid top-flight club career in Argentina and Mexico but never proved up to Serie A level in Italy.
Lazio Career
Season | Total Appearances | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
2013-14 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 4 |
2014-15 | 7 | 5 | 2 | - |
Total | 24 | 16 | 4 | 4 |
Sources
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