One small step at a time

Season 2009-10

Game 32, Serie A

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Lazio Napoli 1-1

Lazio and Napoli settle for a point each towards their objectives

After a bad first half of the season luckily Lazio had picked up and had earned 7 points in the past three games (Cagliari 2-0 away, Siena 2-0 at home and Milan 1-1 away). Lazio were now 16th with a five-point cushion on 18th placed Atalanta.

A stressful situation was now looking rosier but Lazio still needed points.

The match

A warm, sunny day attracted about 30,000 spectators.

For Lazio, Sergio Floccari was back from injury while Tommaso Rocchi was preferred to Mauro Zarate as his attacking partner. In defence Giuseppe Biava was chosen over Guglielmo Stendardo in the centre of defence with André Dias.

Napoli had no absences and played with the predicted line-up with Marek Hamšík and Fabio Quagliarella in support of Ezequiel Lavezzi up front. Napoli took to the field with uncharacteristic red kits with a yellow stripe on the shorts...

Lazio took the lead almost immediately. In the 4th minute Stefano Mauri put in a perfect cross from the left and Floccari anticipated his marker and scored with an excellent and powerful header. Lazio 1 Napoli 0.

The game then went a bit flat. The visitors had a chance in the 10th minute when Juan Camilo Zúñiga tried a shot from a difficult angle, Fernando Muslera saved and Ezequiel Lavezzi's bicycle kick on the rebound went high. Napoli struggled to react after that and Lazio were content to sit on their lead.

The Biancocelesti did have a low Alexsandar Kolarov effort from outside the area saved by Morgan De Sanctis in the 19th minute.

Things changed in the 38th minute. Fabio Quagliarella superbly teed up Marek Hamšík in front of Muslera, cutting out the whole defence and the Slovak beat the Uruguayan keeper, coming off his line, with a lovely touch. Lazio 1 Napoli 1.

Now it was Lazio’s turn to lose confidence. Before halftime Lavezzi won possession half way into Lazio’s half and sent a cracking shot towards the top hand corner but Muslera pulled off a brilliant save. Score at the break Lazio 1 Napoli 1.

A fair score line, Lazio had seemed in control but were too conservative and ended up being punished by Napoli's quality up front.

For the second half Reja decided to play Zarate instead of Rocchi.

The Argentine started promisingly but soon got into his head to do it all alone and became increasingly less useful to the team, losing possession and unbalancing the team.

The second half was lacklustre and very blocked. Napoli had more control but were unable to cause any major threats apart from long distance shots by Hamšík and Hugo Campagnaro, saved well by Muslera. Lazio had a penalty appeal for Cristian Brocchi being obstructed on entering the area but the referee deemed it not sufficient for a spot kick.

In the last ten minutes Lazio threw Julio Cruz on for Floccari in an attempt to possibly find an acrobatic winner. It was Mauri who had a chance from a Kolarov cross but on his wrong foot and it went over the bar. The stalemate remained until the end. Final score Lazio 1 Napoli 1.

A point each for the teams' respective objectives. Not great but not to be scoffed at either. Lazio manager Edy Reja saw the glass half full, although he admitted Lazio would have to win at least two of the last six games and the fixture list was not straightforward (Bologna away, derby, Genoa away, Inter at home, Livorno away and Udinese at home).

To complicate matters came the news that Atalanta had beaten Siena thus reducing Lazio's cushion to three points. The new table read: Siena 26, Livorno 26, Atalanta 31, Lazio 34, Bologna 35. Next up Roma vs Atalanta (the Giallorossi were top so not an easy choice of outcome for Lazio fans) and Bologna vs Lazio. Not a week for the faint hearted.

Napoli meanwhile moved up to 6th as Juventus had crumbled 0-3 at Udine.

Who played for Lazio

Muslera, Biava, Dias, Radu, Lichtsteiner, Brocchi, Ledesma, Mauri, Kolarov, Rocchi (46' Zarate), Floccari (79' Cruz)