Klose takes Lazio to second place
A wonderful double from Klose gives Lazio a win and second place.
Also on this day: December 10, 1967, Lazio Venezia 2-1. A last gasp Bagatti goal gives Lazio a deserved win. Player of the day: Romano Bagatti
The season so far
The 2010-11 season had been disappointing as Lazio failed to qualify for the Champions League playoff on goal difference, so, much to the surprise of fans and media, Claudio Lotito decided that it’s time to cough up the money. There were many new arrivals: goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, right back Abdoulay Konko, midfielder Lorik Cana, defender Marius Stankevicius but, more importantly, left back Senad Lulic and the attacking duo Dijbril Cisse and Miroslav Klose.
In the first game of the season Lazio demolished Rabotnicki in the Europa League playoff, but struggled in the group stage and the qualification for the knockout phase was at risk.
In Serie A Lazio was rather inconsistent. Good performances away from home (4 wins and 2 draws), not so good at home. Klose was scoring but Cisse stopped after the first match against Milan. Edy Reja was struggling to find him the right place on the field and tended to place him on the wing with the German in the centre. The Frenchman was supplying a number of assists, but was unlucky when it came to put the ball in.
The highlight of the season so far was obviously the win in the derby in the 93rd minute. Lazio went down early, recovered in the second half with a Hernanes penalty but with Roma down to 10 men the Biancocelesti were having trouble getting a winning goal. This until the dying seconds of the match when Klose put the ball past the Roma goalkeeper.
The good performances away from home did take Lazio to second place at one point, but the position was lost following defeat at home against Juventus.
The match: Saturday, December 10, 2012, Lecce, Stadio Via del Mare
Lecce, last, had just sacked Eusebio Di Francesco and chosen another supporter of the second team of Rome, Serse Cosmi. Lazio came into the match after a 3-0 win against Novara and was confident they would add three points to the bounty so far. They did but it was a struggle.
The game started uphill for Lazio as David De Michele, former West Ham United player, got away from the Lazio defence and was taken down in the penalty box by Marchetti in the 11th minute. He took the penalty and scored.
Lazio had not really got into the game and Lecce with its star players, Juan Cuadrado and Luis Muriel, put a lot of pressure on the Lazio defence. Marchetti’s saves were almost miraculous and avoided a far worse scoreline.
Lazio woke up in the 28th minute. Corner, Modibo Diakitè headed the ball to the middle of the penalty box and Klose made it 1-1. Lecce reorganised and former Lazio skipper Massimo Oddo started pushing on the wing. Muriel had an incredible chance in the 38th minute but his shot went wide.
Reja knew he had to change something so out went Giuseppe Biava and Tommaso Rocchi and in come Cana and Cisse. Two minutes in the second half and Lazio made it 2-1. Klose passed a wonderful ball in the penalty box to Cana who scored his first goal for Lazio. Lecce were in trouble but Lazio did not push allowing Lecce to equalise. An Olivera cross from a free kick was not cleared by the Lazio defence. Muriel was able to cross it back for Stefano Ferrario who headed it into the net.
If anybody had decided to bet on who would win the game, they would have certainly put money on a Lecce win. But Lazio had the players that could solve things at any minute in time. With three minutes left in the match, Cisse put a perfect cross in the penalty box for Klose to give Lazio the three points.
A tough battle, but Lazio were now second just one point behind Juventus.
Who played for Lecce
Benassi, Oddo, Tomovic (46' Giandonato, 55' Grossmuller), Ferrario, Mesbah, Obodo, Cuadrado, Giacomazzi, Olivera, Di Michele, Muriel (80' Piatti).
Substitutes: J.Sergio, Brivio, Pasquato, Corvia.
Manager: Cosmi.
Who played for Lazio
Marchetti (60’ Carrizo), Stankevicius, Diakité, Biava (46’ Cana), Radu, A. Gonzalez, Ledesma, Lulic, Hernanes, Klose, Rocchi (46’ Cisse).
Manager: Reja
Referee: Russo
Goals: 12’ Di Michele (pen), 28’ Klose, 47’ Cana, 59’ Ferrario, 87’ Klose
What happened next
The second place did not last long as Lazio had a very inconsistent season. Capable of great wins (Milan, Inter and both derbies) but also great disasters (losing against Novara, 5-1 against Palermo). However they managed to keep third place for a long period of time and the qualification for the champions league playoff really seemed within Lazio’s reach. It was not to be. Too many faux pas to be able to have that consistency necessary to reach third place. So in the end it’s a fourth place that, due to Napoli winning the Coppa Italia, meant that Lazio would have to face a play off in the summer to reach the 2012-13 Europa League group stage.
Lazio miraculously managed to go through the knock stage of the Europe League only to be eliminated by a much stronger Atletico Madrid. In Coppa Italia after struggling to get by Verona in the fourth round they were eliminated by Milan in the quarterfinals.
Klose gave a good contribution to the cause with 15 goals (top scorer for the season, 12 goals in Serie A and 3 in Europa League), but Cisse struggled and was sold to QPR after only six months. To note that in the winter transfer window Lazio signed Antonio Candreva on loan for six months with an option to buy half at the end of the season.
Ledesma was the player with most appearances in the season with 47 games overall: 37 in Serie A, 2 in Coppa Italia and 8 in Europa League.
Lazio 2011-12
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals Scored |
Serie A | 38 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 56 |
Coppa Italia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Europa League | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
Total | 50 | 23 | 11 | 16 | 77 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
Ledesma | 47 | 37 | 2 | 8 |
Hernanes | 42 | 31 | 2 | 9 |
Gonzalez | 40 | 31 | 2 | 7 |
Marchetti | 39 | 31 | 1 | 7 |
Lulic | 38 | 27 | 2 | 9 |
Top five goal scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Europa League |
Klose | 15 | 12 | - | 3 |
Hernanes | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 |
Rocchi | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 |
Cisse | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Kozak | 5 | 4 | - | 1 |
5 | 4 | - | 1 | |
Sculli | 5 | 2 | - | 3 |
Let’s talk about: Miroslav Klose
Klose is considered to be one of the best centre forwards of all time and he currently still holds the record of number of goals scored in the World Cup (16).
Born in Opole, Poland, on June 9 1978, his family moved to Germany in 1986. He began his career in Homburg but in 1999 he was noted by Kaiserslauten and began playing for the B team. He did so well (20 goals) that he quickly moved up to the A team and started playing his first games in Bundesliga.
In four seasons with Kaiserslauten he scored consistently always going into double figures and started playing even for Germany. He kept on scoring even in his next club Werder Bremen where he stayed until 2007. He was top scorer in Bundesliga in 2005-06 and top scorer in the 2006 World Cup.
In 2007 he started playing for Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga in his first year. He won it again in his third year in Bavaria but did not play so much due to injury and because manager Van Gaal preferred Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller. His final year in Bayern was pretty dismal personally as he played very rarely. His contract expired and he started looking for a team. Lazio knocked on his door and he moved to Rome.
He played 5 seasons for Lazio. Lots of ups and a few downs. No discussion on how good he was, but at times he gave fans the feeling that the German national team and the World Cup had priority. He consistently missed at least a couple of months a year due to injury, often in the worse possible moments. But when he was on the pitch he did what he was famous for: he scored. His passion for fishing (he was often spotted in nearby Lake Bracciano) gave him the nickname “Goal Fisher”.
He played 171 games for Lazio with 63 goals (139 in Serie A with 54 goals, 11 in Coppa Italia and 3 goals, 18 games in Europa League with 6 goals, one match in Champions League and 2 in the Italian Supercoppa). He is the foreign player with most goals in Serie A for the Biancocelesti.
There are three games to remember in Klose’ history with Lazio. His goal at the last minute in the 2011 derby as previously mentioned, five goals in a single game against Bologna in May 2013, and the win over Roma in the Coppa Italia final of 2013 which is his only trophy with Lazio.
Klose is of course an icon of his national team. He played 137 times for his country and scored 71 goals. He was part of the German squad in the 2002 World Cup (5 goals, Germany was runner-up), Euro 2004, 2006 World Cup (5 goals, Germany was third), Euro 2008 (two goals, runner-up), 2010 World Cup (4 goals, 3rd place), Euro 2012 (lost in semi-final, one goal), and in the victorious 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he scored one goal.
In total he has won the Bundesliga twice with Bayern Munich, 2 German League Cups (Werder Bremen and Bayern), a German Super Cup with Bayern and a Coppa Italia. He won the World Cup in 2014. He is the World Cup’s all-time record goal scorer; Germany national team all-time record goal scorer, only player with four consecutive FIFA World Cup podium finishes: runner-up in 2002, third place in 2006, third place in 2010, winner in 2014; only men's player to appear in four consecutive FIFA World Cup semi-finals: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014; one of three players to score at least five goals in multiple World Cups; most goals from headers in a single edition of the men's FIFA World Cup; one of eight players in Serie A history to score five goals in one match.
So all in all not a bad career!!!
After having trained the under 17s in Bayern Munich from 2018 to 2020, he was assistant to Bayern manager Hans-Dieter Flick in 2020-21. In 2022 be became manager of Altach in Austria but was sacked in March 2023.
Lazio Career
Season | Total games (goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa Leage | Super Coppa |
2011-12 | 35 (15) | 27 (12) | 2 | - | 6 (3) | - |
2012-13 | 36 (16) | 29 (15) | 2 | - | 5 (1) | - |
2013-14 | 29 (8) | 25 (7) | - | - | 3 (1) | 1 |
2014-15 | 40 (16) | 34 (13) | 6 (3) | - | - | - |
2015-16 | 31 (8) | 24 (7) | 1 | 1 | 4 (1) | 1 |
Total | 171 (63) | 139 (54) | 11 (3) | 1 | 18 (6) | 2 |
Sources
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