Lazio 3-2 Anderlecht: tweaked form works

Lazio has scored an important victory in its last preseason friendly before beginning the Serie A campaign against Milan this coming Sunday. Delio Rossi fielded a very similar lineup (only replacing Peruzzi with Ballotta and Bonetto with Manfredini) but changed the form from the unsuccessful 4-5-1 to 4-4-1-1 as follows:

Ballotta
Belleri-Siviglia-Cribari-Zauri
Foggia-Mudingayi-Ledesma-Manfredini
Quadri
Makinwa

The midfield looked much less clogged and plays were able to open up. The first Lazio goal came from neo-biancoceleste Ledesma, who curled in a beautiful direct free kick (which interestingly was almost an exact copy of the first Anderlecht goal). It's promising to see that we have players that are capable of those types of kicks, because Lazio has not been able to generate that kind of threat on set pieces in the past year. The second goal, tying it at 2-2, came on a precision feed to Makinwa who had taken off at full sprint and just managed to stay onside for a one on one opportunity which he fed through the Anderlecht keeper's legs. The winning goal came on a bit more of a lucky play, a pinball-style goal that was last touched by Belleri. Not as pretty as the others, but it showed that Lazio was keeping the pressure on and generating chances in the box.

The defense also didn't see the lapses that it did in the match against Espanyol. Their opening goal was a beautiful direct free kick that neither the back four nor Ballotta could do much of anything about. Yes, the second goal for Anderlecht came from a penalty shot that could have been avoided, but Ballotta is back in form and actually blocked the rigore and only was surpassed on the rebound. All in all a good showing for Lazio, with promise for the opener against Milan, when Oddo, Rocchi, and Pandev can be reintroduced to the lineup.

Espanyol 2-0 Lazio, but no reason to worry

Yesterday Lazio lost 2-0 in a friendly against Espanyol for the Trofeo Ciutat de Barcelona. The match was not pretty, especially the ways in which Lazio gave up the goals and nearly gave up a few more, but it was clear that this was being played as an experimental match. Delio Rossi, without Rocchi (at NT duty), Pandev (just resting), and Oddo (also at NT) decided to start a creative 4-5-1 lineup and see how it fared:

Peruzzi
Belleri-Cribari-Siviglia-Zauri
Foggia-Ledesma-Bonetto-Mudingayi-Quadri
Makinwa

Foggia looked very promising on the wing, but couldn't make plays through the overpacked midfield, and there were very few opportunities to pass ahead with only Makinwa striking. Lazio went behind 1-0 near the end of the first half when the entire back line took a brief nap during an Espanyol set piece. When Rossi started making substitutions, it became clear that he was treating this as solely an exhibition match. Greco, Firmani, Baronio, Casini, Capogna, De Silvestri, and most surprisingly of all, 3rd string keeper Berni all saw action. Lazio did mount one last push in the 90th minute which cost them the counterattack and Espanyol's second goal. None of the players or coaches seemed troubled by this fact, so late in the game. The expiriment may have not been successful, but it was a necessary step on the path towards Milan on September 10.

Look for a more conventional Lazio line against Anderlecht on Sunday (Anderlecht is in Champions group stage after all, so Rossi really needs to put forth his best team possible), and the biancocelesti stars ready to come off the bench against Lithuania this afternoon in Napoli.