Unfair?

By: cathal | February 9th, 2009

We battled and we battled but try as we might, we couldn’t find a way past Fiorentina. To make matters worse, they found a way past us in the dying minutes. Call it unlucky, call it unjust, I simply call it unfair. I don’t wish to whine and moan about it but yesterday was tough on us and I don’t feel we deserved it.

The turning point in the game came fairly early on when Lollo was dismissed for a second bookable offence. I can’t argue with the sending off; the first yellow was a petulant kick and the second was a silly tug on a purple shirt. I hate to say it but that’s two bookable offences. We could argue that it was early in the game and the referee could have showed some compassion or we could also argue that Fiorentina players got away with similar incidents but it doesn’t change what happened. Ten men in less than twenty minutes; that’s an uphill struggle.

Despite that setback, we actually played well and had the better of the chances. The problem, as it has been for some weeks now, was putting some of them away. Zarate and Pandev had good games but Frey was on fire, stopping everything that crossed his path. In saying that, we had numerous one-on-one situations and the Frenchman shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to save all of them. We need to be clinical and put those types of chances away otherwise you pay the price which ultimately, we did.

Muslera had a fantastic game as did Rozehnal and Cribari in defence. David had his best game for us yet in my opinion, clearing the danger and preventing Fiorentina from having simple scoring opportunities. Matuzalem proved a point too, pressing the midfield whenever he could which allowed Ledesma to suss out where the danger lurked. All in all, the rearguard action we put up after De Silvestri’s dismissal was brilliant and showed that this defence can defend. We just have to keep it up.

The performance is there but what we need for our confidence is points. It’s worthless saying that we played excellently when the fact is, we lost. Win a game and we will be back to our best, I’m sure of it but we have lost too much ground in 2009 and it is going to take a mammoth effort to get back on track. We can do it though. Keep the faith. Forza Lazio!

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