Lazio 3-1 Ascoli: auguri Delio Rossi!

Delio Rossi got a great 46th birthday present from his players in the form of a 3-1 home win over struggling Ascoli. But as usual, Rossi kept his critical edge even in the face of the great success the biancocelesti have had over the past three matches:

In serie A se pensi di non soffrire sei un presuntuoso. Oggi abbiamo saputo soffrire, ma abbiamo mostrato anche qualità, perchè se fai 12 gol in 3 gare vuol dire che hai qualcosa in più degli avversari. Oggi non riuscivamo a tenere bene palla davanti, soffrivamo in po' a metà campo, poi abbiamo risolto la situazione e la vittoria l'abbiamo meritata.

"In Serie A you never think that you're suffering from overconfidence. Today I think we did suffer, but we also showed quality, because if you score 12 goals in 3 matches it means that you have something more than your opponents. Today we didn't succeed at controlling the ball well at the front, we suffered a little bit at midfield, but then we resolved the situation and we deserved the victory." Grande Delio, always thinking like a coach, full of constructive criticism.

And as for the players, nearly all of them met or exceeded expectations. Goran Pandev had a solid day, including a masterful piece of ball control that allowed him to beat two defenders and score his goal; his only major miscue was failing to secure an easy tap-in for another score. Tommaso Rocchi didn't have a stand-out day, but he ran well off the ball and was instrumental in occupying defenders and generating chances. Stefano Mauri was the disappointment, but only so because he had been so incredible in his previous two performances; he did score the own-goal, but that is more due to the weakened defense and a tricky play by Ascoli than any other fault. The midfield performed as usual, weak in the center but strong up the wings, and the defense held well considering they were lacking their leader at right back. The defense also did well to help press in the offensive end, as noted on the scorecard by the fact that Belleri got credit for the first goal (even though he wasn't the author of the shot). Foggia's insertion late in the game bolstered the central midfield and his fresh legs let him score the clinching goal.