Seventh place in the standings with 52 points, six points behind fifth-placed Roma, who emerged with three points from the recovery at the Dacia Arena, and just two points behind sixth-placed Atalanta, waiting to recover the match against Fiorentina. This is the situation of Lazio of Tudor, who with five days to go before the end of the championship are looking for a European qualification. Four successes in the last five Serie A outings, between Frosinone, Juventus, Salernitane and Genoa, in between the defeat in the derby against Roma.
Tonight Tudor faces his past again, with the Croatian in charge of Hellas Verona during the 2021-2022 season, when he took over at the start of the season in place of the sacked Eusebio Di Francesco. Despite what may seem like an easy challenge on paper for the Biancocelesti, with Baroni’s team in full battle not to be relegated and currently three points ahead of third-last place Udinese, in recent seasons this has been a which has always created problems for Immobile and his companions.
The numbers
In the last four matches between Lazio and Hellas Verona only last season did the Biancocelesti manage to bring home the three points in front of their fans: it was the same day of the championship, when Immobile and substitute Luis Alberto gave the victory to Maurizio in the second half Sarri. Two nil to the team coached by Cioffi at the time, the only success against the Scala team to arrive in Rome in the last four seasons.
The results
In the 2019-2020 season, Inzaghi’s men were stopped at the Olimpico, in a match recovered several weeks later than scheduled, and which saw Lazio stopped repeatedly by the woodwork, especially Luis Alberto. The epilogue of the following season was different, when in December 2020 the Biancocelesti were defeated in the home match against the team coached by Ivan Juric at the time. The match ended 1-2: at the end of the first half the Gialloblù advantage came due to Manuel Lazzari’s own goal, to which Inzaghi’s team responded thanks to Caicedo’s equalizer, assisted by the former Spal player, made in vain by the decisive Tameze network. In Sarri’s first year on the Biancocelesti bench, not even the Tuscan coach was able to lead Lazio to success against the Scaligeri. It was a special night, which witnessed the farewells of players such as Lucas Leiva and Thomas Strakosha, one of the many protagonists in the pyrotechnic 3-3 final. In the first quarter of an hour, Tudor’s team went ahead by two goals thanks to goals from Simeone and Lasagna, with the Biancocelesti responding before the end of the first half with goals from Jovane and Felipe Anderson. The comeback was completed in the 62nd minute thanks to Pedro’s goal, which Hongla responded to for the final 3-3.
