Lazio v Udinese: preview

Lazio face Udinese in the last game of the season. The Biancocelesti are now safe after a very difficult spell, which has seen them battle out against relegation until the end. Everyone is exhausted and willing to go on holiday, as Brocchi explained after the victory against Livorno. “All I want to do is leave and get away from all this. I’m a bag of nerves”, the midfielder said. “I want to come back and fight for Europe next season. Of course if we avoided relegation on the penultimate match of the season, the club definitely needs to sort some problems out”, admitted Brocchi, who scored the winner, his first goal in a Lazio shirt.

As we explained, the match against Udinese (they will sport a black kit) was brought forward due to security reasons. Edy Reja will probably field an unusual line-up, thus players such as Tommaso Berni, Roberto Baronio, Sebastiano Siviglia, Mobido Diakité and Thomas Hitzslsperger are all likely to start.
Baronio, Siviglia, Julio Cruz and Ousmane Dabo will play their last game for Lazio. The Argentinean striker scored 4 goals in 24 games but his agent confirmed yesterday that this was his last season in football. Baronio, Siviglia and Dabo won’t hang their boots but they will still leave. The midfielder deputised for Ledesma when the Argentinean was left aside, while Siviglia even scored with an incredible back-heel in the match drawn against Fiorentina. Dabo will finish his career in France where PSG are presumably hot favourites to land his services.

At the beginning of the week, most World Cup coaches named their provisional squads. Aleksandar Kolarov (Serbia), Mourad Meghni (Algeria), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Switzerland) and Fernando Muslera (Uruguay) will represent Lazio in South Africa. While Udinese even have nine players joining the World Cup party: Simone Pepe, Antonio Di Natale (Italy), Alexis Sanchez, Mauricio Isla (Chile), Kwadwo Asamoah, Emmanuel Badu (Ghana), Samir Handanovic (Slovenia), Aleksandar Lukovic (Serbia) and Gokhan Inler (Switzerland) will be proud delegates.
Two of them, Handanovic (gk) and Lukovic, were cautioned in their last game against Bari (3-3). They will be suspended against Lazio but they’ll have more time to get ready for the World Cup. Considering that the reserve goalkeeper, Emanuele Belardi, is slightly injured, the Venezuelan Rafael Romo (20) will have to deputise between the sticks. Strangely enough, the young keeper wears the number 1 shirt, for his colleagues took respectively number 22 and number 6.

Antonio Di Natale keeps scoring. Last Sunday he netted two goals bringing his goal tally to 28. He overcame Oliver Bierhoff as Udinese season’s top scorer (27 in 1997/98) and he’s now closer to Didier Drogba (29) who is second in the ESM Golden Shoe’s standings (Lionel Messi is top with 32 goals). Di Natale also overcame Lorenzo Bettini, who was the Zebrette all-time top scorer with 67 goals before the season started (he has scored 84). The striker declared he wants to finish his career with the Bianconeri. With the brace scored against Bari, he has now reached 101 goals in Serie A. In order to celebrate, his team-mates put a crown on his head at the end of the match and the striker presented a bracelet and a pc to everyone. “I wanted to thank them because I believe that they should take credit from my 28 goals”, he said. He’ll likely be hungry for more come Saturday night.

Also the coach, Pasquale Marino, should take credit for what Di Natale achieved during this season. His tactics bare little resemblance to those practised by his compatriots and one could think he’s Dutch rather than Italian. His offensive system certainly favoured the Italian striker in the last three seasons, despite the coach was sacked on December 22 but was recalled on February 21. Next season, Parma and Udinese will swap benches with Marino moving to Parma and Guidolin to Udine.

Udinese could be considered a “late team”. In fact, they are the team that have conceded (5) and scored (7) more goals than any other team in added time (first half included). They have a never-die attitude, but at the same time they expose themselves to other teams’ counter-attacks.

Lazio have the worst home form, having collected only 18 points in 18 games at the Olimpico. Udinese instead have the worst away form, having taken only 9 points from the 54 available. They’re not very last in the away form table, for Atalanta and Livorno’s goal difference is worse than theirs. If Lazio win and Siena don’t beat Inter, the Biancocelesti at least could claim not to have the worst home form of the league. The same could be said for the visiting team, if they manage to achieve a better result than Livorno’s at Parma.

Udinese have taken the Olimpico by storm in the last two seasons. In 2007, only Marco Ballotta could avoid a heavier defeat (0-1) and last season the Bianconeri won 3-1. Lazio last defeated Udinese in 2006, when they won 5-0. That though was only their second win in 7 attempts at home. Lazio and Udinese have met 32 times in Serie A in Rome, with the Eagles winning 15, the Zebrette 10 and 7 games drawn. In the process Lazio managed to score 51 goals, while Udinese notched up 37.

Zarate will want to finish his bad season scoring a goal. Last time he netted at home it was in the match drawn (1-1) against Palermo in September.