January 25, 2014: Lazio-Juventus 1-1
- Dag Jenkins
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
Lazio stop ten-man Juventus but wanted more
The Biancocelesti halt Juve's winning streak but woodwork and reserve keeper deny them win
The season so far
The previous season Lazio finished 7th but had experienced the wild joy of winning the Coppa Italia beating city rivals Roma in the final.
The cup lifting manager had been confirmed but there had been some changes to the squad. The main arrivals in the summer were Albanian goalkeeper Etrit Berisha (Kalmar), young Brazilian attacking midfielder Felipe Anderson (Santos) and Argentine midfielder Lucas Biglia (Anderlecht). In the winter Lazio had also added striker Hélder Postiga (Valencia).
There were more players leaving than arriving. It was goodbye to goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri (Genoa), defender Modibo Diakité (Sunderland), midfielders Pasquale Foggia (Dubai Club), Danilo Cataldi (Crotone-loan), strikers Libor Kozak (Aston Villa) and Mauro Zarate, this time definitely (Vélez Sarsfield-end of contract).
This season under Vladimir Petkovic had not started so positively and Lazio lost the Supercoppa final 0-4 against a vastly superior Juventus. Lazio also struggled in the league bringing the club to replace Petkovic with reliable Edy Reja after 17 games (W5, D5, L7 and in 10th position). The decision was also caused by the Bosnian polyglot having signed a contract to lead the Switzerland national team.
Since the manager from Friuli's return, Lazio had won 2 (including Inter 1-0 at home) and drawn 1.
In Serie A Lazio lay in 9th position after 7 wins, 6 draws and 7 defeats, on 27 points. A week earlier Lazio had won 3-2 away at Udine.
Lazio were still in both cups, Italian and Europa League. In the Coppa Italia they had defeated Parma 2-1 at home and would now play Napoli away in the quarter finals on January 29. In Europe they got through the group stage with Polish Legia Warsaw (1-0, 2-0), Turkish Trabzonspor (3-3, 0-0) and Cypriots Apollòn Limassol (0-0, 2-1). In the Round of 32 they would next play Bulgaria's Ludogorec, at home on February 20 and in Razgrad on February 27.
Juventus were reigning champions. They had won Serie A under Antonio Conte for the second time in a row, for their 29th title. The Bianconeri had also won the Supercoppa (Napoli 4-2 a.e.t). In the Champions League they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Bayern Munich 0-4. In Serie A they had drawn 0-0 against Lazio at home but won 2-0 in Rome. The top scorer was Arturo Vidal with 15 total goals while only in Serie A Vidal and Mirko Vučinić got 10 each.
This season the Salentino manager from Lecce had stayed on. The main new players were defender Angelo Ogbonna (Torino), forwards Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao) and Carlos Tévez (Manchester City). Recently in the winter session forward Pablo Osvaldo had arrived on loan from Southampton.
Leaving Juventus were midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini (Sunderland), plus forwards Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal - end of loan) and Alessandro Matri (Milan). Another two minor operations at the time, which Juventus would later possibly regret, were letting go of Ciro Immobile (Torino) and Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo).
Juventus were currently top of the table, on 55 points. They had a comforting 8-point lead on second placed Roma. The Bianconeri had won 18 (including Lazio 4-1), drawn 1 and lost 1 (Fiorentina 2-4 away after being 2-0 up).
In the Coppa Italia they had been eliminated a few days earlier, as on January 21 they lost 0-1 away to Roma in the quarterfinals.
In the Champions League they had gone out in the group phase. The Bianconeri had won 1 (FC Copenhagen 3-1 at home), drawn 3 (FC Copenhagen 1-1, Real Madrid and Galatasaray both 2-2 at home) and lost 2 (Real Madrid 1-2 and Galatasaray 0-1, both away). A disappointing campaign and they now dropped down into the Europa League in which they would play Trabzonspor in February in the round of 32.
Considering their league form however, 12 consecutive wins, no prizes for guessing who the clear favourites were today.
The match: Saturday, January 25, 2014, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
A crowd of 60,000 turned up for this big Saturday night match.
Lazio were missing defender Stefan Radu and midfielder Senad Lulic while Stefano Mauri still had another two weeks to go on his 6-month suspension.
Juventus had to do without defender Giorgio Chiellini while midfielder Andrea Pirlo was on the bench.
The first shot at goal was by Juventus but Arturo Vidal's ambitious long-range effort went over the bar.
Lazio however started energetically and put Juventus in difficulty. Andrea Barzagli was pressed high by Miro Klose outside the area on the left and was forced to pass back to Gianluigi Buffon who was then pressed himself by Klose, the keeper tried to dribble the German who got a foot to the ball but it went outside the right post.
Juventus then had another attempt fly over the bar, this time by Kwadwo Asamoah.
In the 24th minute a key episode took place. Abdoulay Konko played a lovely low ball into the area to Klose, the striker anticipated and pushed the ball past Buffon who clattered into him. Red card for the Italy goal stopper and penalty for Lazio.
Conte's move was to take Asamoah off and put on replacement goalkeeper Marco Storari.
Antonio Candreva then went forward and placed a perfect, low spot kick to the right of Storari who had dived the other way, 1-0.
Despite being in ten men Juventus obviously reacted but were well controlled by Lazio. Their only real chance was with Fernando Llorente who turned well in the area and shot but Berisha saved and then blocked before anyone could get a rebound.
Towards the end of the half Lazio appealed for another penalty as Leonardo Bonucci touched the ball with an arm stretched wide while challenging Hernanes. The referee nor the assistants saw anything and so pre-VAR that was it. Halftime Lazio 1 Juventus 0. A deserved lead so far.
Lazio's game plan for the second half seemed to be to play deep, control and try to strike on the break.
They almost did early on when a Candreva long range shot whistled just over the bar.
In the 60th minute however the Biancoceleste tactic went out the window. Stephan Lichtsteiner crossed into the front post from the right and Llorente twisted his body and sent a strange trajectory header over Etrit Berisha and in off the far post, 1-1. A well-taken but maybe slightly fortuitous goal.
In the 65th minute Lazio took off defender Luís Pedro Cavanda and introduced midfielder Álvaro González.
Juventus were now back and almost took the lead when Vidal played in Tévez on the right side of the box, "El Apache" hit it first time but Berisha was reactive on the near post and saved into corner.
The Juventus keeper Storari then did even better. Hernanes floated a free kick into the crowded area from the right and Klose hit a close range, powerful, central header which looked like a sure winner but the former Roma academy keeper somehow managed to get a hand to it and it ended up hitting the crossbar. A great save.
In the 84th minute Candreva went off and was replaced by Keita Balde. The Spanish-Senegalese almost won it for Lazio but his curling right footed strike came back off the far post, hit Storari and then fell conveniently into the keeper's arms. Final score Lazio 1 Juventus 1.
Lazio had gone close to toppling the champions but had been unlucky. An hour against ten men, a crossbar, a post but still not enough. They had the consolation of interrupting the Zebra's 12-game winning run.
Juventus had confirmed to be a tough nut to crack and had managed, also with a dose of luck, to avoid defeat even from 0-1 down in ten men.
Lazio were now joint 9th with Milan on 28 points.
Juventus were obviously still leaders on 56 points but now "only" had a six-point cushion on 2nd placed Roma who had won 3-1 in Verona.
Who played for Lazio
Berisha, Biava, Cana, Dias, Cavanda (65' A.Gonzalez), Biglia, Ledesma, Konko, Candreva (84' Keita), Hernanes, Klose
Substitutes: Marchetti, Strakosha, Ciani, Vinicius, Pereirinha, Crecco, F.Anderson, Floccari, Perea
Manager: Reja
Who played for Juventus
Buffon, Barzagli, Bonucci, Ogbonna, Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Marchisio, Pogba, Asamoah (26' Storari), Tevez, Llorente
Manager: Conte
Referee: Massa
Goals: 27' Candreva (pen), 60' Llorente
Red Card: 24' Buffon
What happened next
Lazio finished 9th in Serie A. In the remaining 17 games the Biancocelesti won 8, drew 4 (including derby 0-0) and lost 5. The top scorer was Antonio Candreva with 12 league goals. In January the "Prophet" Hernanes was sadly sold (Inter) and Sergio Floccari also left (Sassuolo).
In the cups Lazio crashed out. In the domestic cup they lost 0-1 in Naples. In Europe they were knocked out by Ludogorec 3-4 on aggregate.
A mediocre season for Lazio after the magic summer of 2013.
Juventus won the league again. In the remaining games they won 15, drew 1 and lost 1 (Napoli 0-2 away). They stacked up a record 102 points (Roma were 2nd on 85…). The top scorer was Carlos Tévez with 21 goals (19 in A).
In the Europa League they reached the semi-final. They eliminated Trabzonspor 4-0, Fiorentina 2-1, Olympique Lyonnais 3-1 but then lost 1-2 to Benfica. The eventual winners were Sevilla (Benfica on penalties).
Let's talk about Gianluigi Buffon
Today in our opponents series we will talk about a great goalkeeper.
Gianluigi Buffon known as Gigi was born in Carrara (Tuscany), on January 28, 1978. He came from a sporty family; his mother was a shot put and discus champion, his father a shot-putter too, his uncle played top level basketball, his two sisters played top level volleyball and he is also a distant relative of former great goalkeeper Lorenzo Buffon.
As a boy his clubs were Canaletto, Perticata, Bonascola and in 1991 he joined the Parma academy. He himself was a Genoa fan as a boy.
In 1995 he debuted for the Parma first team and would stay six seasons. He made 220 total appearances and won a Coppa Italia (1999), a Supercoppa (1999) and a UEFA Cup (1999). His managers were Nevio Scala, Carlo Ancelotti, Alberto Malesani (including the great 1998-99 season) plus briefly Renzo Ulivieri and very briefly Arrigo Sacchi.
In 2001 he joined Juventus for an incredible 75 billion lire. He would remain with the Bianconeri for 16 seasons. He made 666 appearances and won 9 league titles, the Coppa Italia 4 times, and the Supercoppa 5 times. His managers were Marcello Lippi for three seasons, Fabio Capello for two, Didier Deschamps, Claudio Ranieri, Ciro Ferrara, Alberto Zaccheroni, Luigi Delneri, Antonio Conte for three and Massimiliano Allegri for four. Between 2012 and 2018 Juventus won six consecutive league titles (3 with Conte and 3 with Allegri). In this long period Buffon also followed Juventus down to Serie B in 2006-07 (due to the Calciopoli scandal) and helped them win promotion and then on to more successes.
In 2018 he went for a foreign experience and joined PSG. He only stayed a season playing 25 games under Thomas Tuchel. The Parisiens won the Ligue 1 and the French Super Cup (Monaco 4-0) but lost the French Cup final (Rennes on penalties).
In 2019 he returned to Juventus for two more seasons but was more of a reserve to Wojciech Szczęsny. He played another 29 games (17 in A) and won another Scudetto under Maurizio Sarri (2020) and a Coppa Italia (2021) and Supercoppa (2021) under Andrea Pirlo.
In 2021 he made a romantic return to his first club Parma. The Gialloblu were now in Serie B and finished 12th and 4th (then losing in the playoffs to Cagliari). He played another 35 games under Enzo Maresca, Giuseppe Iachini and then Fabio Pecchia.
He then retired at 45.
He also had a fantastic international career. He earned a record 176 caps (1997-2018) and won the 2006 World Cup. He also won a runners-up medal at the 2012 Euros. He was Italy captain a record 80 times. He took part in five World Cups.
Since retiring he has followed his business activities; a restaurant in Pistoia and a beach resort near Massa.
He has also been involved with his hometown football club Carrarese (now in Serie B) where in 2012 was the sole shareholder. He has since given way to new owners.
Buffon is currently working for the Italian Football Federation as head of delegation for the national side.
Buffon was a superb goalkeeper. At 1.92 and 92 kilos he was strong and athletic but also agile with excellent reflexes. He had a great sense of position plus charisma and leadership qualities. These combined with his strength and technical abilities made him one of the best goalkeepers in history.
He has won countless awards and still holds several records at club level too: number of league titles (10), Coppa Italia winner (6 with Roberto Mancini), Supercoppa winner (7), unbeaten minutes in single Serie A format (974), most consecutive games unbeaten (10), Italian player with most trophies (23), Italian player with most club appearances (975), player with most appearances in A (657), most Juventus appearances (526), most Juventus appearances in A (489), one could go on...
At Parma and Juventus he is a legend but he is popular all over Italy a sort of national treasure. When he played Lazio in Rome he was one of the only, if not the only, keeper who was applauded when he took his place between the posts under the Curva Nord. A gesture he always responded to with a wave.
The Buffon sports tradition continues as one of his sons plays for Pisa in Serie A as a winger and has also been called up and played for the Czech Republic U18s (Buffon's first wife Alena Šeredová is Czech).
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