August 18, 2011: Lazio Rabotnicki 6-0, Europa League Playoff
- Simon Basten
- Aug 18
- 6 min read
Spectacular
Lazio demolish Rabotnicki with goals from Hernanes, Mauri, Cisse, Rocchi and Klose
Also on this day:
August 18, 2015, Lazio Bayer Leverkusen 1-0, Champions League Play Off. Lazio manage to win thanks to Keita, but will it be enough?
August 18, 1982, Lazio Perugia 3-2 Coppa Italia. Returning for his first game with Lazio since 1980, Giordano leads the charge as the Biancocelesti beat Perugia from 0-2 down.
The season so far
The 2010-11 season had been disappointing as Lazio failed to qualify for the Champions League playoff on goal difference, so, much to the surprise of fans and media, Claudio Lotito decided that it was time to cough up some money. There were many new arrivals: goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, right back Abdoulay Konko, midfielder Lorik Cana, defender Marius Stankevicius but, more importantly, left back Senad Lulic and the attacking duo Djibril Cissé and Miroslav Klose. Saying farewell to Lazio were Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray) and Stephan a Lichtsteiner (Juventus). Mourad Meghni ended his contract by mutual consent.
Today was the first official game of the season against Rabotnicki from Macedonia in the first leg of the Europa League playoff.
The match: Thursday, August 18, 2011, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Just a little more than a training match for Lazio. Rabotnicki, North Macedonian club, were way too weak for Lazio who scored six times and it could have been more.
After an Hernanes goal disallowed for offside, in the 20th minute the Biancocelesti began their show. Stefano Mauri to Hernanes on the edge of the box and it was 1-0. Mauri scored Lazio’s second but was again ruled offside. Not to worry. In the 39th minute he got his “revenge”. Long ball to Miro Klose, volley towards the centre and the Biancoceleste skipper placed the ball in the back of the net.
In the second half Djibril Cissé became the protagonist. In the 51st minute Klose gave a great ball to the Frenchman who, with a curling shot, made it 3-0. A quarter of an hour later, Francelino Matuzalem crossed from the left and Cissé headed the ball in.
Two more goals arrived in the final minutes. In the 85th it was Tommaso Rocchi who scored on another assist from Klose who finally got a goal four minutes later when a great ball from behind allowed Rocchi to easily pass to the German for the final 6-0.
Too easy for the Biancocelesti and Europa Group stage virtually reached.
Who played for Lazio
Marchetti, Radu, Dias, Biava, Scaloni, Mauri (71’ Lulic), Ledesma, Brocchi (62’ Matuzalem), Hernanes, Klose, Cissé (84’ Rocchi)
Manager: Reja
Who played for Rabotnicki
Dimitrievski, Todorovski, Najdoski, Lazarevski, Petrovic, Muarem (78' Gligorov), Vujcic, D. Velkovski, Micevski (43' Nastevski), Manevski (85' Petkovski), K. Velkovski
Substitutes: Siskovski, Avramovski, Skenderovic, Trajkovski
Manager: Petreski
Referee: Karasev (Russia)
Goals: 20’ Hernanes, 39’ Mauri, 51’ Cissé, 65’ Cissé, 84’ Rocchi, 89’ Klose
What happened next
At the end of the first half of the season Lazio were fifth. Champions League qualification, always the goal, was five points away and held as usual by Udinese. The Biancocelesti were around fourth place for most of the winter (they were even second at one point) and slipped behind on the 19th game. They were in third place from February until three games to the end of the Campionato. On April 29, after losing at Udine, fatal yet again for Lazio’s objectives, they were caught up in third place by Napoli, Udinese and Inter. A draw at home against Siena the next game meant that it would have to be Europa League. It was really within their reach but too many faux pas to have that consistency necessary to reach third place. So, in the end it was fourth place that, due to Napoli winning the Coppa Italia, meant that Lazio would have to face a play off in the summer to reach the 2012-13 Europa League group stage.
Lazio miraculously managed to go through the knock off stage of the Europa League only to be eliminated by a much stronger Atletico Madrid. In Coppa Italia after struggling to get past Verona in the fourth round they were eliminated by Milan in the quarterfinals.
Klose gave a good contribution to the cause with 15 goals (top scorer for the season, 12 goals in Serie A and 3 in Europa League), but Cissé struggled and was sold to QPR after only six months. To note that in the winter transfer window Lazio signed Antonio Candreva on loan for six months with an option to buy half at the end of the season.
Ledesma was the player with most appearances in the season with 47 games overall: 37 in Serie A, 2 in Coppa Italia and 8 in Europa League.
Let’s talk about Miro Klose
Klose is considered one of the best centre forwards of all time and he currently still holds the record of number of goals scored in the World Cup (16).
Born in Opole, Poland, on June 9 1978, his family moved to Germany in 1986. He began his career in Homburg but in 1999 he was noticed by Kaiserslautern and began playing for the B team. He did so well (20 goals) that he quickly moved up to the A team and started playing his first games in the Bundesliga.
In four seasons with Kaiserslautern, he scored consistently, always getting into double figures and also started playing for Germany. He kept on scoring for his next club Werder Bremen, where he stayed until 2007. He was top scorer in Bundesliga in 2005-06 and top scorer in the 2006 World Cup.
In 2007 he started playing for Bayern Munich and won the Bundesliga in his first year. He won it again in his third year in Bavaria but did not play so much due to injury and also because manager Van Gaal preferred Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller. His final year in Bayern was pretty dismal personally as he played very rarely. His contract expired and he started looking for a new team. Lazio knocked on his door and he moved to Rome.
He played five seasons for Lazio. Lots of ups and a few downs. No discussion on how good he was, but at times he gave fans the feeling that the German national team and the World Cup had priority. He consistently missed at least a couple of months a year due to injury, often in the worst possible moments. But when he was on the pitch, he did what he was famous for: scoring goals. His passion for fishing (he was often spotted in nearby Lake Bracciano) gave him the nickname “Goal Fisher”.
He played 171 games for Lazio with 63 goals (139 in Serie A with 54 goals, 11 in Coppa Italia and 3 goals, 18 games in Europa League with 6 goals, one match in Champions League and 2 in the Italian Supercoppa). He is the foreign player with most goals in Serie A for the Biancocelesti.
There are three moments to remember in Klose’s history with Lazio. His winning goal in the last minute of the 2011 derby, five goals in a single game against Bologna in May 2013, and the win over Roma in the Coppa Italia final of 2013 which was his only trophy with Lazio.
Klose is of course an icon of his national team. He played 137 times for his country and scored 71 goals. He was part of the German squad in the 2002 World Cup (5 goals, Germany were runners-up), Euro 2004, 2006 World Cup (5 goals, Germany were third), Euro 2008 (two goals, runners-up), 2010 World Cup (4 goals, 3rd place), Euro 2012 (lost in semi-final, one goal), and in the victorious 2014 World Cup in Brazil where he scored one goal.
In total he has won the Bundesliga twice with Bayern Munich, 2 German League Cups (Werder Bremen and Bayern), a German Super Cup with Bayern and a Coppa Italia. He won the World Cup in 2014. He is the World Cup’s all-time record goal scorer; Germany national team all-time record goal scorer, only player with four consecutive FIFA World Cup podium finishes: runner-up in 2002, third place in 2006, third place in 2010, winner in 2014; only men's player to appear in four consecutive FIFA World Cup semi-finals: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014; one of three players to score at least five goals in multiple World Cups; most goals from headers in a single edition of the men's FIFA World Cup; one of eight players in Serie A history to score five goals in one match.
So all in all not a bad career!!!
After having trained the under 17s in Bayern Munich from 2018 to 2020, he was assistant to Bayern manager Hans-Dieter Flick in 2020-21. In 2022-23 he was manager of Altach in Austria. He is now currently manager of Nürenburg in 2. Fußball-Bundesliga (German second tier).
Lazio Career
Sources
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