Lazio - Napoli

By: salvatore | May 16th, 2008

Well, here it is folks. Finally. The end of an absolutely torturous season.

torture

If you’re keeping track at home, we’ve seen a mind bogglingly awful summer transfer campaign highlighted by the still undecided Carrizo affair, the death of a fan, further eroding of the season ticket base, the most injuries, red cards and suspensions in the league, and a whole lot of tie games and blown opportunities.

Basically, it sucked, and it felt like it’s lasted about ten years.

So, one more peaceful spin around Olimpico and we can start over and get everything in order. Right? Not so much. First, there is the resolution of the whole Calciopoli thing, which has resulted in Delio being suspended three match games . Then there is the whole matter of fan protests and rioting. There is at the moment no clear indication of what will happen Sunday. Will the fans stage a silent protest, or will they just not show up? Hard to say so far, but either way, you can be sure that Lotito is a loser.

Lotito

As for the match itself, it’s just as hard to predict. On the one hand you have a Napoli team that’s come off a win against Milan, and a Lazio team in management shambles. On the other, is a Partenopei squad that’s about as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as you can get, playing like champions at home, and Serie B minnows on the road. Hard to say which will show up.

Full disclosure though: I sort of like Napoli. My mother’s family is from the area, and I still have a lot of relatives who live there and bleed the colors. In fact, most of them were probably at the Milan game last weekend. So while there would be nothing good about another Lazio loss, a part of me would be happy to know my cousins are at least laughing at my expense.

Lazezzi is obviously the danger man for Napoli, which is made worse by the fact that Siviglia and Cribari are said to be less than 100%. As it stands they’re reportedly in the starting line-up, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rozehnal in there either. His performance last week at Genoa was just too good to have him rot on the bench.

Probable Formations:

Lazio: Ballotta; Zauri, Siviglia, Cribari, Kolarov; Mudingayi, Ledesma, Mutarelli, Mauri; Bianchi, Rocchi

Napoli: Navarro; Cannavaro, Contini, Domizzi; Mannini, Pazienza, Gargano, Blasi, Savini; Sosa, Lavezzi

Likelihood Lazio blows it: 70%
Likelihood no one shows up at the stadium: 50%
Likelihood that my family argues about this one: 40%

Here’s what happened the last time these teams met (including hilariously out of control commentary):