July 18, 2009: Lazio Universitatea Craiova 1-1, Friendly

Good training match

Ballardini’s new 4-2-3-1 seems to work well

Player of the day: Eliseu

Also on this day: July 18, 2003: Lazio Chelsea 2-0. Lazio beat Chelsea in an early pre-season friendly

Sources Lazio Wiki

The season so far

The previous season Lazio won the Coppa Italia beating Sampdoria on penalties in the final. They hence qualified for the Supercoppa where they would meet the mighty Inter who had easily won the scudetto.

The Biancocelesti had changed managers. The relationship between President Claudio Lotito and Manager Delio Rossi had worsened during the season so Lazio decided on a change: Davide Ballardini, who had done well at Cagliari and Palermo.

The club had so far signed goalkeeper Albano Bizzarri from Catania and midfielder Eliseu from Malaga. Mauro Zarate and Francelino Matuzalem had their loans transformed into definite signings.

Leaving Lazio were Juan Pablo Carrizo (loan to Real Zaragoza) and Libor Kozak (loan to Brescia) while Manuel Belleri’s contract was not renewed.

The Biancocelesti were in their preseason training period at Auronzo di Cadore. Today was their second friendly, against the Romanians Universitatea Craiova.

The match: Saturday, July 18, 2009, Stadio Rodolfo Zandegiacomo, Auronzo di Cadore

The first play came from Stefano Mauri, protagonist in the 14th minute of a splendid intuition that allowed Tommaso Rocchi to have a shot at goal but the goalkeeper managed to parry. Mauri was again the protagonist in the 26th minute, with another assist, this time for Pasquale Foggia who, with a low left-footed shot, went very close to scoring.

On the following corner the ball came out of the box and Alexander Kolarov, arriving at full speed, unleashed a left-footed shot which was deflected and ended up wide. In the 40th minute an excellent initiative by Universitatea with Costea who took advantage of a Kolarov indecision and shot from inside the penalty area with the ball saved on the line by Sebastiano Siviglia. Two minutes later Cristian Ledesma tried a shot from a set piece, but the ball went wide. In the 45th minute Fernando Muslera took the stage with a decisive save on an extremely venomous effort from the edge of the area that was heading for the top corner to the left of the Uruguayan goalkeeper.

In the second half Ballardini presented a completely revolutionised Lazio.

The Biancocelesti took the lead in the 59th minute with Lionel Scaloni who found himself one-on-one with the keeper and, after his initial shot was parried, managed to put the ball in with his left foot. The Romanians equalised in the 76th minute, thanks to the Australian Michael Baird who headed in a cross from the left by Florin Soava.

A good training match for Lazio. The new 4-2-3-1 seemed to be working well.

Who played for Lazio

First half: Muslera, Lichtsteiner, Siviglia, Radu, Kolarov, Brocchi, Ledesma, Foggia, Mauri, Zarate, Rocchi

Second half: Bizzarri, De Silvestri, Cribari, Rozehnal, Scaloni, Dabo, Firmani, Correa, Eliseu, Pandev, Inzaghi

Manager: Ballardini

Who played for Universitatea Craiova

Bornescu, Dananae, Gaman, Barbu, Rose, Barboianu, Stoica, Prepelita, Gangioveanu, F. Costea, M. Costea

The following came on during the second half: Lung, Mitchell, Busu, Dilevski, Dina, Soava, Wobay, Baird

Manager: Gane

Referee: Gava

Goals: 59’ Scaloni, 76’ Baird

What happened next

During the course of the summer there were contractual problems with Goran Pandev, Cristian Ledesma and Lorenzo De Silvestri.

Lazio had spent quite a lot of money, for their standards at the time, to keep Pandev, but he refused to renew his contract. In the meantime, he claimed he was injured. In reality he wanted to go back to Inter and he pushed Lotito for a sale. The issue with Ledesma was similar. There were arguments over the renewal of his contract and the Italo-Argentinian also had a contract awaiting him at Inter. De Silvestri too had a dispute with Lotito over the renewal of his contract. All three were not allowed to play with the team or even to train with the squad. De Silvestri would eventually be sold to Fiorentina, Pandev and Ledesma took Lazio to court in order to dissolve their current contracts.

So, Ballardini started the season without these three players but joining Lazio was Julio Cruz, the legendary Inter striker. David Rozehnal left for SV Hamburger.

In the Supercoppa Lazio surprisingly beat Inter 2-1. An incredible feat considering the might of the Nerazzurri.

The Biancocelesti won their first two Serie games but for a third win Lazio would have to wait until December (Lazio Genoa 1-0). Ballardini was hated by the fans and not particularly loved by the players. Lazio really missed the two rebel players but Mauro Zarate was not playing well either. He tended to ignore all his teammates and try to do everything himself, and obviously this was not working. By the end of the year Lazio were only three points above the relegation zone.

In the winter market transfer, Lotito made three fundamental signings: defenders Giuseppe Biava from Genoa and André Dias from São Paulo plus centre forward Sergio Floccari from Genoa. Floccari's impact was a breath of fresh air for the team and he scored three goals in his first two matches for the club. Lazio ended the first part of the season in 15th place with a 5-point cushion on the drop zone.

But in the next four games Lazio only managed two draws and were now third from bottom. Bye bye Ballardini, welcome Edy Reja.

In the meantime, Pandev had won his case against Lazio and joined Inter as a free agent. Ledesma instead lost his. With the arrival of Reja, all was forgiven and Ledesma was back on the pitch.

In Reja’s first match, Lazio won at Parma but things then precipitated with just one point in the next four games. Then Lazio managed to win at Cagliari and also beat Siena the week later.

After the game against Siena, Lazio really improved. They won at Bologna after being 2-0 down, lost the derby unluckily, but beat Genoa away the following week. With three games to go to the end of the season Lazio needed only three points to secure survival in Serie A. And they clinched them at Livorno with a game to go.

Prior to this match there was the game against Inter. Apparently, Roma supporters thought that Lazio had a genuine chance to beat the Nerazzurri, who were fighting for the scudetto with the Giallorossi. All Lazio fans however knew that there would be no contest against the strongest team in Serie A, and that was exactly what happened. But for the media and Roma fans, Lazio let Inter win. A ridiculous accusation that many still claim to this day, forgetting that the Nerazzurri went on to win the Champions League a month later, and therefore Lazio really did not stand a chance.

In the Europa League Lazio played against Red Bull Salzburg, Villareal and  Levski Sofia. After losing the first match against the Austrians they won two in a row but then defeats in Spain and Salzburg meant that Lazio had to say goodbye to Europe.

Stephan Lichsteiner and Stefano Mauri were the players with most appearances (43), Rocchi was the leading goal scorer (10).

Let’s talk about Eliseu

Source Lazio Wiki

Eliseu Pereira dos Santos known as Eliseu was born on October 1 1983 in Angra do Heroísmo in the Azores. He started playing football in the Sport Clube Lusitânia and at 19 years of age signed for Belenenses. After three seasons he was loaned to Varzim in the second tier (16 appearances with 3 goals) but went back after a year for a final season with "O Belém". In total he made 55 appearances for Belenenses with 4 goals in four seasons.

In 2007 he signed with Malaga. He won promotion to the Spanish top tier and stayed for another season showing his skills as a left winger who could also play on the right. After 76 appearances and 11 goals, in July 2009 he joined Lazio.

He arrived among general scepticism and that certainly did not help his stay. After 9 appearances in six months, mainly in Europa League, he was loaned to Real Zaragoza. In the summer of 2010 he went back to Malaga for four seasons and in 2014 signed for Benfica. Here he won 3 league titles, 2 league cups, a Portuguese Super Cup and a national cup. At the end of his contract with Benfica he retired.

Eliseu has 29 caps with Portugal with one goal. He played two games in the Euro 2016 (first round and quarter finals) which Portugal eventually won beating home side France 1-0.

Eliseu must be considered one of the missed opportunities for Lazio. The club, and fans, did not have the patience to wait for him to adapt to the new situation. He had a very good career making 423 total career appearances with 40 goals.

Sources

Lazio Wiki

Wikipedia