CAICEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Caicedo gives Lazio their eighth consecutive win in a dramatic last second win.
Also on this day:
The season so far
A slow start for Lazio. Until October Lazio had shown potential but also threw away a few points here and there. They were not playing well either. Immobile was scoring a lot as usual but it was not working. Even the Europa League campaign had started badly.
At the end of the first half in the match at home against Atalanta, Lazio was losing 3-0. The season was practically a write off, and it was only October. But then something triggered in the players’ head. Lazio managed to draw the game and start a winning streak of seven consecutive games, including a win in Milan against AC Milan for the first time since 1989. This game came a week after Lazio had crushed Juventus at home for 3-1, coming for behind. At this moment Lazio were not too far from the top of the Serie A.
The match: Monday, December 16, 2019, Cagliari, Sardegna Arena
It is difficult to write about this game. It was probably one of the most exciting and dramatic games in Lazio’s history.
After an initial chance for Immobile in the 2nd minute, Cagliari went ahead in the 8th minute. Charis Lykogiannis’ throw in was headed towards the centre of the box by Joao Pedro and Giovanni Simeone anticipated a slow Francesco Acerbi and made it 1-0. Shock start for Lazio but the fans were confident there would be a rapid turnaround. But Lazio was mentally drained after the Juventus match and just could not get to grips with a very solid Cagliari team.
With two minutes to go to the end of the first half Lazio had their second opportunity. A Luis Alberto free kick crossed the entire Cagliari defence but Senad Lulic could not make any contact. A couple of minutes later Radja Nainggolan went off all alone on a counter attack, got past Acerbi pretty comfortably and was alone in front of Thomas Strakosha who miraculously saved the former Roma player’s shot. The subsequent corner saw Joao Pedro’s header again saved by the Lazio goalkeeper and the next corner would put Simeone in a position for a simple tap in but he somehow managed to send the ball wide
Lazio woke up in the second half and in the 50th minute two Immobile headers were saved on the line by the Cagliari defence. In the 73rd minute there was a comedy of errors. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was clearly pushed inside the penalty box but the referee said play on, ball to Simeone in Lazio’s half who pulled down Manuel Lazzari, the players almost stopped waiting for the ref’s whistle but he again said play on, ball went to Nainggolan who passed to Cagliari’s centre-forward unmarked in front of Strakosha but kicked the ball over the cross bar. Four minutes later Joao Pedro had another chance but Acerbi blocked his effort.
The referee gave seven minutes of injury time, Lazio still had hope. Cagliari were on their knees and Lazio took advantage. In the 91st minute Acerbi crossed for Milinkovic-Savic, a Cagliari defender touched the ball with his hand but Luis Alberto was quicker than the ref and his volley gave Lazio an equaliser. Game over? No. Lazio continued to attack and there were loads of crosses in the penalty box that Cagliari had trouble controlling.
Could Lazio win this? It was the 97th minute. The ref gave an extra 30 seconds of injury time due to a Cagliari substitution. Luis Alberto’s long pass found Lazzari. His immediate cross was sent out of the penalty box by a Cagliari defender and Jony gained possession. His perfect cross was headed by Felipe Caicedo into the net. Lazio fans all over the world went crazy!!!
Lazio took the three points, their eighth consecutive win and were only three points behind the leaders. Could this be Lazio’s year?
Who played for Cagliari
Rafael, Cacciatore, Klavan, Pisacane, Lykogiannis, Nandez, Cigarini (80' Oliva), Ionita (83' Faragò), Nainggolan (90'+4' Deiola), Joao Pedro, Simeone
Substitutes: Aresti, Ciocci, Pinna, Mattiello, Pellegrini, Walukievicz, Cerri, Ragatzu
Manager: Maran
Who played for Lazio
Strakosha, Luiz Felipe, Acerbi, Radu (80’ Caicedo), Lazzari, Milinkovic-Savic, Leiva (64’ Cataldi), Luis Alberto, Lulic (56’ Jony), Correa, Immobile
Manager: Inzaghi
Referee: Maresca
Goals: 8’ Simeone, 90’+3’ Luis Alberto, 90’+8’ Caicedo
What happened next
Lazio went on a roll after this match and the winning streak went to 11, a club record. Fantastic wins against Inter and Juventus allowed them to reach first place by the end of February. Lazio were playing beautifully, scoring lots of goals with Immobile on fire. In December Lazio won the Super Coppa against Juve in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating a superiority not seen since 2000. Triumph was around the corner, but so was Covid and the Campionato was stopped.
When Lazio returned, bad form, injuries and the problem in substituting key players Lucas Leiva and Lulic broke everybody’s dreams.
However, they managed to secure 4th place and Champions League for the 2020-2021 season.
Immobile scored 36 goals in Serie A, equalling the Italian record set by Gonzalo Higuain. This was enough for him to win the European Golden Boot.
Let’s talk about: Luis Alberto
Luis Alberto Romero Alconchel is probably one of the most talented players ever to play for Lazio. A difficult player to manage though. He needs a lot of mental help to maximise his enormous potential.
Born in San Josè del Valle on September 28, 1992, “Il Mago” (The Magician), as he is known in Italy, spent most of his youth career in Seville. In 2009 he started playing for Sevilla Atletico, the reserve team of Sevilla, in the Second Division of the Liga. In 2010 he went back to the A team but did not play much. After two years the club sent him to play with the Barcelona B team on loan where he did pretty well and he was “discovered” by Liverpool. He moved to Anfield in 2013 but again played very little. In 2014 he was sent on loan to Malaga and a year later to Deportivo La Coruna.
His career change came in 2016 when Lazio signed him from Liverpool. Initially the idea was that he was going to substitute Antonio Candreva who had been sold to Inter. However, unlike the former Lazio captain, Luis Alberto was not a winger and had difficulty adapting, and not just to the new way of playing but in general.
The change came in a match against Genoa on April 15 2017. Lazio were trailing 2-1 and Luis Alberto was thrown in ten minutes to the end in a desperate attempt to equalise. He scored his first goal for Lazio 11 minutes later and literally became another player. He played a couple of times towards the end of the season showing that he really could really play football if given the chance.
And the chance came at the beginning of the following season. Felipe Anderson was designated to be Ciro Immobile’s attacking partner but got injured during pre-season training. Luis Alberto was chosen as his replacement in the Super Coppa final against Juventus. He played well, Lazio won and the Spaniard went on to play 47 games, score 12 goals and provide 14 assists during the season. His next season was not so good but he was still one of the most important players capable of doing anything with the ball and he helped Lazio win the Coppa Italia.
Lazio became a strong contender for the Scudetto in 2019-20 but the Covid shutdown had negative effects on the team and the Biancocelesti struggled once the Serie A returned from lockdown. He however helped Lazio win the Supercoppa and finally reach a Champions League qualification.
In order to demonstrate his one good year - one not so good pattern, he was very inconsistent in 2020-21 and rumours of him wanting to return to Sevilla started being a recurrent in the Italian media, also because his beloved manager Simone Inzaghi left Lazio. Maurizio Sarri, the new manager, confirmed Luis Alberto’s wish to go back to Spain but no decent offer arrived.
After struggling a bit with the new playing philosophy, Luis Alberto found consistency and a regular place on the team. In some matches, especially the more physical ones, Sarri left him on the bench since the three-man midfield made up of the Spaniard, a not so young Lucas Leiva and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was not really ideal when one has to run around the opponents. But, despite fake rumours in the Roman media about arguments between manager and player, Sarri has alway spoken very highly of Luis Alberto. “A very intelligent player”, he said of him.
2023-24 was not a good season for Lazio and not a good one for Luis Alberto either. The Biancocelesti struggled all year and he showed his quality only rarely. After game against Salernitana he announced that he was going to leave the club despite having had his contract renewed duing the previous summer. After a little resistant from the club, he was sold to Al-Duhail Sports Club.
Between the 2016-17 season and 2022-23, Luis Alberto played 263 games for Lazio (209 in Serie A, 13 in Coppa Italia, 6 in Champions League, 30 in Europa League, 3 in Conference League and two Super Coppa finals) and has scored 47 goals (42 in Serie A, 1 in Coppa Italia, 3 in Europa League and 1 in Super Coppa). He was won three trophies: a Coppa Italia in 2018-2019 and two Super Coppas (2017 and 2019).
He has not had much luck with the Spain national team, having only played once for his country. Luis Alberto has been consistently and mysteriously ignored by the various Spanish managers, even though he would thoroughly deserve to be part of the La Furia Roja.
Lazio Career
Season | Total played (Goals) | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League | Europa League | Conference League | Super Coppa |
2016-17 | 10 (1) | 9 (1) | 1 | - | - | | - |
2017-18 | 47 (12) | 34 (11) | 3 | - | 9 (1) | | 1 |
2018-19 | 37 (6) | 27 (4) | 5 (1) | - | 5 (1) | | - |
2019-20 | 41 (7) | 36 (6) | - | - | 4 | | 1 (1) |
2020-21 | 40 (9) | 34 (9) | - | 6 | - | | - |
2021-22 | 44 (5) | 34 (5) | 2 | - | 8 | | - |
2022-23 | 44 (7) | 35 (6) | 2 | - | 4 (1) | 3 | - |
2023-24 | 44 (5) | 33 (5) | 2 | 8 | - | - | 1 |
Total | 307 (52) | 242 (47) | 15 (1) | 14 | 30 (3) | 3 | 3 (1) |
Sources
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