Lazio stop ten-man Juventus but wanted more

Dag Jenkins
Jan 25, 2024
4 min read

Season 2013-14

Game 21, Serie A

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Stadio Olimpico, Rome

Lazio Juventus 1-1

The Biancocelesti halt Juve's winning streak but woodwork and reserve keeper deny them win

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.

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).

Considering their league form however, 12 consecutive wins, no prizes for guessing who the clear favourites were today.

The match

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