Lazio 2-2 Real Madrid

By: Taib | October 5th, 2007

Lazio fans

First off what a great atmosphere this match had. Really loud and the crowd were behind the team. A great turnout as well. Much better then I was hoping. Some people got a little too excited and let off many smoke bombs which went all around the stadium making the start the match a really messy. Still the fans were great.

The fans were great but unfortunately the start was not great. The aforementioned smoke was at kick off and only eight minutes in Real Madrid scored from a free kick. Wesley Sneijder sent a fast curling ball that somehow missed everyone and hit Van Nistelrooij’s shin and went into the goal. Really really bad defending. After the goal Lazio settled down and Real Madrid were mostly just content on passing the ball around which was rather suprising. There was large gaps where Lazio players could run into and several times the ball into these area was cut off by Real Madrid player intercepting. The first major chance for Lazio was in the 30 minute when Pandev raced on to a defence splitting pass from Rocchi after sloppy Real Madrid defending. He only had Casillas to beat but horribly skewed his shot well over the bar. However two minutes later Pandev atoned for his glaring miss by volleying the ball into the net. Zauri sent a ball from the left wing and Mauri headed it into the path of Pandev who put it pass Casillas who did not have a chance.

The goal brought Real Madrid back to life again and they started to up the ante once more. Ramos had a good run but shot wide off the target. Robben tested the goalkeeper fro a shot from the edge of the area. Half time ended with a goal apiece.

Second half began extremely well for Lazio and Mauri had a great chance to put Lazio in front but his volley did not test Casillas too much. Rocchi then had a better chance but somehow he missed from only about two metres out as he tried to squeeze the ball in at the near post. He should have hit it across goal and it would have been a goal if on target but he chose wrong. Only minutes later Real Madrid went in front again on a very quick counter attack. Raul put in a great throughball which just left Van Nistelrooij to put the ball in the net. This made Lazio impose themselves more and Real Madrid did not settle. On 75 minutes Mudingayi won the ball off Guti and passed it to Pandev. Pandev the ran at Cannvaro and Heinze with the Real Madrid left back nowhere to be seen. He cut inside and hit and strong low shot that beat Casillas.

That is how the game ended. 2-2. A fair result in my opinion. Lazio matched Real Madrid and had some really good chances. With Olimpiacos winning away to Werder Bremen that leaves Lazio in third place in the group two points behind Real Madrid and Olimpiacos who will face in the next round. Werder Bremen are at the bottom with no points and that is our next rival. If Lazio play like they played in this match I can see us getting a very positive result. I just hope the lads will be as motivated for the game as they were here.