Lazio come alive and reach Champions League group stage
In difficult circumstances Lazio manage to beat Dinamo București coming from behind.
Also on this day: August 28, 2021, Lazio Spezia 6-1. Lazio demolish Spezia after falling behind giving a taste of future Sarriball, hopefully. Player of the day: Raul Moro
The season so far
The previous season had been an exceptional one for Lazio, arriving third and reaching a qualification for the Champions League preliminary round, to be played in mid August. Manager Delio Rossi had been confirmed.
Since it was still August, Lazio were in full transfer mode. There was the problem of the goalkeeper to solve. Angelo Peruzzi had retired and Lazio were looking for a substitute. Juan Pablo Carrizo was the chosen one but there was a problem with his passport. He had applied for an Italian one but it had not arrived yet. So far Lazio had signed Aleksandar Kolarov, a young Serb left back with a powerful shot, Mourad Meghni from Bologna, Lionel Scaloni and Simone Del Nero on a free transfer. It was hoped that more would come, especially considering that Lazio had a Champions League to play.
Lazio’s opponents for the Champions League preliminary round were drawn on August 3: Dinamo București. The first game was at home and it proved to be a very difficult match. The Romanians scored early, Tommaso Rocchi missed a penalty, three injuries (Emilson Cribari, Guglielmo Stendardo and Stefano Mauri) and two sendings off (Valon Behrami and Massimo Mutarelli) Despite all this, the Biancocelesti managed to equalise with Mutarelli and still had a glimmer of hope for the return game.
The match: Tuesday, August 28, 2007, Stadionul National, Bucharest
The game proved to be an uphill one right from the start. Lazio in clear physical difficulty were almost overwhelmed by Dinamo in the first half. In the 25th minute Marco Ballotta had to parry a shot by Ionel Danciulescu. And two minutes later the Romanians went ahead. George Blay sent in a good ball for Florin Bratu on the right who beat Stendardo for speed and once he was in the box crashed a shot into the goal. At this point Lazio were out of the competition.
The team that came back in the second half, with nothing to lose, was completely different. In the 48th minute Simone Del Nero stole a ball in the box from Valise Nastase who fouled him. Penalty for Lazio and this time, unlike in the first leg, Tommaso Rocchi scored the spot kick and now it was all square.
The Biancocelesti took over and Dinamo disappeared. In the 54th minute, Del Nero intercepted a ball in Lazio’s half and ran towards the box, followed by Rocchi and Goran Pandev. He passed to Rocchi, back heel to Pandev who resisted the return of Blay and with a low clinical shot put Lazio into the lead.
In the 57th minute Christian Manfredini’s shot was too high, in the 63rd Gaby Mudingayi from long range gave some problems to Bogdan Lobont and two minutes later Pandev hit the woodwork. The goal was coming and it came in the 66th minute. Cristian Ledesma to Pandev who put the ball through to Rocchi who beat the offside trap and all alone in front of Lobont made it three for Lazio.
Game over, the Biancocelesti went through to the Champions League group stage.
Who played for Dinamo București
Lobont, Blay, Nastase, Radu, Pulhac, Oprita (59' Chiacu), Ropotan, Margaritescu (76' Nicolescu), Cristea, Bratu, Danciulescu (72' Munteanu).
Substitutes: Romanovs, Nitu, Izvoranu, Ganea.
Manager: Rednic.
Who played for Lazio
Ballotta, De Silvestri, Stendardo (35’ Scaloni), Cribari, Zauri, Mudingayi, Ledesma, Manfredini, Del Nero (86’ Belleri), Rocchi, Pandev (90’ Tare)
Manager: D. Rossi
Referee: Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain)
Goals: 28' Bratu, 48' Rocchi (pen), 54' Pandev, 66' Rocchi
What happened next
At this point it was hoped that Lazio would start to do something as far as transfers were concerned but the only major signing was young goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, temporary replacement for Carrizo forced to stay in Argentina due to the fact that his Italian passport did not arrive in time.
In the Champions League, Lazio were knocked out in the group stage, but put on a brave effort, beating Werder Bremen and drawing at home against Real Madrid.
In Serie A Lazio struggled all year. They did not have the depth, as far as players were concerned, to face Champions League, Campionato and Coppa Italia and in the end they finished 12th. The only highlight of the season was a last second winner against Roma in March. President Claudio Lotito came to the rescue in the winter transfer window with the purchase of young Romanian defender Stefan Radu, more experienced defender David Rozenhal, centre-forward Rolando Bianchi and the return of Ousmane Dado. But these signings should have been made six months earlier.
Tommaso Rocchi was the player with more appearances (48) and most goals (19) together with Goran Pandev.
Lazio 2007-08
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 47 |
Coppa Italia | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
Champions League | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 |
Total | 52 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 66 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Rocchi | 48 | 36 | 4 | 8 |
Pandev | 44 | 32 | 5 | 7 |
Ledesma | 43 | 32 | 4 | 7 |
Cribari | 42 | 31 | 5 | 6 |
Ballotta | 39 | 29 | 2 | 8 |
Top goal scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Rocchi | 19 | 14 | 1 | 4 |
Pandev | 19 | 14 | - | 5 |
Bianchi | 4 | 4 | - | - |
Let's talk about Lorenzo De Silvestri
Lorenzo De Silvestri was born in Rome on May 23, 1988. He grew up with Lazio, played in every youth team and worked himself up to the top tier. During the course of his training he was always very highly considered by coaches who predicted he could be one of the most important Lazio players coming from the youth sector since Alessandro Nesta and Marco Di Vaio.
De Silvestri is a very physical right back, who can play both in a more defensive role as well as a more attacking position. He debuted for Lazio in the Intertoto Cup in the last minutes of Tampere United Lazio in 2005. His first appearance in Serie A came on April 22 2007 in the game against Fiorentina.
De Silvestri was a good friend of Gabriele Sandri. Sandri on November 11, 2007 was travelling on an away trip to Inter but was shot to death by a policeman. The lethal bullet was fired from a distance of about 50 metres while Sandri was asleep in the back of a car in a motorway cafe car park in Tuscany (Gabriele was a well-known DJ in the capital). It later transpired the police thought there was a robbery going on. The Inter-Lazio game was called off and there were fan revolts all over Italy in protest about the tragedy. The policeman, Luigi Spaccarotella, would later be condemned for wilful homicide.
Unfortunately De Silvestri did not turn out to be the fantastic footballer everybody thought he would be. He was “just” average. As a consequence he did not have the playing time he thought he would get. At the end of a successful season for Lazio with the Coppa Italia win of 2009, De Silvestri argued with President Claudio Lotito over the renewal of his contract. He refused to play and the club was forced to sell him.
He played 69 games for Lazio (47 in Serie A, 14 in Coppa Italia with two goals, 6 in Champions League and 2 in the Intertoto Cup).
In August 2009 he signed for Fiorentina. Despite his ambition, he still did not play that much more than with Lazio. He stayed for three years with 86 appearances and two goals. In his second year the Fiorentina manager was Sinisa Mihajlovic.
In July 2012 he was loaned to Sampdoria with option to buy. He became a regular player once his former Lazio manager Delio Rossi took over. In his second year Rossi was replaced by Mihajlovic. He stayed four years in Genoa, the last season marred by injury, with 114 appearances and 9 goals.
In August 2016 he signed for Torino, following manager Mihajlovic. He stayed for four years, in the first he did not play much but starting from his second year he, finally, became a first choice player. He played 128 games with 13 goals for the Granata.
Sinisa moved to coach Bologna in 2019 and De Silvestri joined him for the fourth time in 2020. He has 78 appearances so far (2022-23 season) with six goals. He played a lot less last season.
De Silvestri has played for every possible Nazionale: under 16, under 17, under 18, under 19, under 20, under 21, as well as the Olympic team in the 2009 Beijing games. When he joined Fiorentina he was even called up for the national team and has 6 caps.
Lazio Career
Season | Total appearances (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Intertoto Cup |
2005-06 | 3 | - | 1 | - | 2 |
2006-07 | 4 (1) | 2 | 2 (1) | - | - |
2007-08 | 34 (1) | 24 | 4 (1) | 6 | - |
2008-09 | 28 | 21 | 7 | - | - |
Total | 69 (2) | 47 | 14 (2) | 6 | 2 |
Sources
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