LiveBlog: Lazio – Villarreal (Europa League)

By: cathal | October 22nd, 2009

The game is about to kick-off and I will be bringing updates live to you for as long as my stream holds up. The line-up is as follows:

Bizzarri, Kolarov, Radu, Cribari, Lichtsteiner, Dabo, Baronio, Matuzalem, Foggia, Zarate, Cruz.

19:03 CET: Lazio kick-off and nine seconds in, my stream dies. Wonderful.
19:07 CET: I think I will stick on the kettle and hope my stream recovers by the time I have fetched a nice cup of tea. Before I go, I’d just like to say that Villarreal may be bottom of the table but to get a win from this would be a magnificent result and a huge boost for those who have World Cup ambitions; I hear Lippi is around somewhere.
19:12 CET: Back in both senses and my initial impression is that both sides will go for this. I can see an early goal coming.
19:15 CET: End to end stuff right now with the visitors just shading the better of the play I reckon.
19:18 CET: A blatant dive in the penalty area from Nilmar and he duly receives a yellow for it. No big deal but let’s keep them out of the box for a few minutes; they’ve already had three decent efforts.
19:22 CET: MAURITO ZARATE FIRES LAZIO IN FRONT!!!
19:28 CET: To say we deserve our lead would be stretching it as we have been tentative and cautious but it brings me back to the point I was making last weekend; will Zarate and Rocchi work? Great build-up play from our own Super Julio.
20:24 CET: …I hate streams.
20:27 CET: That Eguren goal before half time really knocked the stuffing out of us and it looks like only one side can win this now. Nothing going in our favour.
20:30 CET: The wheels are falling off the wagon. Villarreal have a dubious goal disallowed before Matuzalem is sent off for diving in the box (second yellow). Thoughts? I’m not too happy, I can tell you all that much.
20:33 CET: That was, what can only be described as an atrocious decision that could end up dumping us out of the competition. Inexcusable. To make matters worse, Cruz misses a good opportunity.
20:36 CET: Rocchi is on for Foggia. With ten men, Ballardini is going for this which should silence a few critics that has been criticising his negativity recently.
20:43 CET: We are on top but will we get our reward for it?
20:51 CET: Added minutes now and after a long spell of pressure, we are now on the backfoot.
20:53 CET: WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT!? ROCCHI HAS SCORED TO MAKE IT 2-1!!! Not over yet and Villarreal have a free-kick in a neat position.
20:56 CET: Full time. Against all odds, Lazio have grabbed a late and somewhat deserved victoy. It would have been a travesty if we lost this game; no more than we deserve. Forza Lazio!