Lazio - Cagliari preview

Lazio (-2 pts, 17th place)
vs.
Cagliari (3 pts, 13th place)
20:30 CET (2:30 PM EDT) Sun, Oct 15
Stadio Olimpico, Roma

US TV: FSC (live)

Lazio return home to the Olimpico after a week off and seek to enter positive figures with a win against the Sardinians on Sunday. While the rest of the club was resting and preparing for this game, Massimo Oddo and Stefano Mauri played another game at the Olimpico with the azzurri against Ukraine. In that game, Oddo scored his first goal for the national squad, as Roberto Donadoni rightly chose him to take a penalty shot for Italy.

Back in Rome for Lazio, the revolving door of injuries continues. Angelo Peruzzi has recovered from his wrist injury and will be in goal. But while he recovered, Siviglia developed muscle spasms in his leg and Foggia injured his left knee. These seem to be minor injuries and they should be available in a couple of weeks. Mutarelli is also back practicing regularly but will start the day on the bench.

As for Catania, despite coming off of two strong draws against at Siena and home against Inter, they are in trouble for Sunday's match. They also are experiencing injury problems and have lost one of their forwards, David Suazo, to national team duty for his native Honduras. With their attack weakened, Lazio's back four should be able hold even with the loss of Siviglia. If Peruzzi is truly back in form, Lazio will have a good chance at putting up its fourth straight clean sheet. If the midfield can generate chances, Rocchi and Pandev should have good opportunities against the Cagliari back line which will have at least two substitute players.

Projected lineup for Lazio:

Peruzzi
Oddo-Cribari-Stendardo-Zauri
Manfredini-Baronio*-Ledesma-Mauri
Pandev-Rocchi

*Gazzetta.it has information that Baronio will start in place of Mudingayi (as purely a coaching decision on Rossi's part). I find this slightly dubious, but we will see when the match starts.

Prediction: Lazio 2-0 Cagliari, a goal for Rocchi and a goal for a midfielder