Siena – Lazio

By: cathal | April 4th, 2009

All rejoice as the international break ends and Serie A resumes. As much as I enjoy a bunch of nations fighting it out against one another, nothing compares to watching a schizophrenic Lazio take on a solid, decent, if fairly unspectacular side. I almost forgot league soccer even existed but I’m back in the correct frame of mind and looking at this as the ideal warm-up for Rioma.

I would never call myself a gambling man but I just happened to end up at the bookmakers today and perhaps it’s just a personal problem but I seriously detest the fact that Siena are favourites to win this game. I know they are a good side playing at home with a superb coach but is our chaotic descent that bad? Really? Forget harsh statements, Lotito should drag our boys down to the betting shop and force them to put thousands of euros on an away win. That would get a reaction.

I haven’t a clue who Delio intends to play tomorrow because I am not sure what two weeks of free time does the man’s head. Thankfully Lazialita have been watching everything more closely than I have. Muslera is set to start in goal because he didn’t concede six goals midweek. Therefore, Carrizo must brave the bad and the worse and sit on the bench. Rossi will porbably revert to his favoured back four of Kolarov, Cribari, Siviglia and Lichtsteiner now that they are all available for selection. Foggia and Pandev are being kept for the derby (I think the latter is a yellow card away from suspension) and Brocchi is injured so Rossi will reshuffle the pack. Meghni and Mauri are expected to be in the midfield along with Ledesma and Matuzalem. Rocchi and Zarate start in attack. This is the probable line-up:

Lazio (4-3-1-2): Muslera, Kolarov, Cribari, Siviglia, Lichtsteiner, Meghni, Ledesma, Matuzalem, Mauri, Zarate, Rocchi.

I expect Giampaolo to implement his usual 4-3-1-2 formation which leads me to believe this will be a battle between players rather than coaches and their tactics. It’s a tough game to predict, hence I kept my money in my pocket when I was at the bookmakers. However, if we want to have any sort of confidence going into the derby, we need a win. Can we do it? I reckon we can. Our frontmen bagged three past them earlier in the season so we should be able to capitalise on any nerves they may have. Forza Lazio!

Previous Encounter: Lazio 3-0 Siena (Zarate, 58, Rocchi, 85, 93)
Last Season: Siena 1-1 Lazio (Pandev, 23, Maccarone, 31)
Stream: TBA