Rome 11/09/2022 Serie A Tim Championship – Lazio vs Hellas Verona © Gian Domenico Sale
by Giorgio BICOCCHI
Do you know this year who we would give the Golden Sower, the recognition that rewards the best coach in the Championship? Not to Inzaghi, who manages an opulent multinational, but to Baroni. One who, last January, saw more than half the team leave but who was not discouraged by having to then amalgamate a brood of carneads. The danger for Lazio – on Saturday evening – will above all be the Verona coach: astute, sagacious, practical.
The Gialloblù – among other things – have not lost away from home for two and a half months, they are healthy and, currently, they would be clearly safe. This is why Lazio will need to be on top of things: the three points up for grabs are fundamental, useful and necessary to secure – or almost – the Europa League zone. For the other objective – the more prestigious one – there is no point thinking about it: too many points have been clumsily lost during this season of overall regression.
The hope is that our players were able to cushion the stress accumulated in the match against Juve. Fresh forces on the field compared to Tuesday? Patric – who only played 45′ – perhaps Kamada, Vecino (also played for less than half an hour), even Zaccagni, if he gives further confirmation of his performances. Luis Alberto and Taty forward, also hoping that Felipe manages to tame the pain of his injured toe.
It will be a “bad game”, for sure: Verona – so present in the last few matches – were perhaps an opponent to avoid at this moment. A team that, after the winter revolution, was able to relaunch itself thanks to Suslov’s polite feet, Montipo”s saves, Lazovic’s bucking, the growth of Folorunsho (a Lazio enthusiast, imagine…) and a battery of slippery attackers for every defender (like Bonazzoli and Noslin, for example).
In short, we will need to start strong, immediately fueling the pace: woe is it to increase confidence and optimism in the yellow-blue group. The first leg – it was the long weekend of the Immaculate Conception – ended in a draw. And it was a match heavily influenced by the referee who disallowed a good header scored by Casale late on. One of the many refereeing fiascos this season. Someone will object: but how? Do you complain about the referees? Yes, because 4 more points were enough to think about the Champions League and not the Europa League or the Conference…
