7 on 7 in Andalusia

Dag Jenkins
Aug 5, 2023
3 min read

Season 2017-18

Pre Season Friendly

Saturday, August 5, 2017

La Rosaleda, Malaga

Malaga-Lazio 0-1

Lazio win their 7th and last summer friendly before the big Juventus clash

Today was Lazio's 7th and last summer friendly. The previous had been a 16-0 win over locals Auronzo, a 9-1 against Top 11 Radio Club 103 (Cadore Top 11), Triestina 3-0, SPAL 2-0, Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 and Kufstein 13-1. Lazio's objective was to be match fit for their first big appointment of the season; the Supercoppa against Juventus on August 13 in Rome.

Serie A would start a week later on August 20, at home against SPAL.

Málaga had finished 11th in the Spanish Liga under former Real Madrid legend Michel.

This season Michel stayed on. The captain was Recio while an interesting player was Moroccan forward Youssef En-Nesyri. The Spanish league would start on August 18.

The main new players were: goalkeeper Roberto (Espanyol - on loan), defenders Diego Gonzalez (Sevilla) and Paul Baysse (Nice), midfielder Adrián (Eibar) and forward Diego Rolán (Bordeaux - on loan).

Leaving were: goalkeeper Carlos Kameni (Fenerbahçe), defenders Martin Demichelis (retiring), Weligton (retiring, after 217 league games), Diego Llorente (Real Sociedad), midfielder Ignacio Camacho (Wolfsburg, after 199 games), forwards Sandro (Everton), Charles (Eibar) and Pablo Fornals (Villarreal).

A decent test against Liga opposition for undefeated Lazio.

The match

A crowd of 10,000 showed up at La Rosaleda for this Costa del Sol Trophy 20.30 kick-off.

Lazio had most players available, the only players not ready were defender Luiz Felipe, midfielder Felipe Anderson and forward Felipe Caicedo.

In the first 15-20 minutes the hosts put Lazio in some difficulty with their very tight 4-1-4-1 set up. The Spaniards played with Zravko Kuzmanovic as low playmaker and Álex Mula and Roberto Rosales combined well on the right flank.

After about 20 minutes however Marco Parolo pushed further upfield to face Kuzmanovic and things improved.

In the 34th minute Stefan Radu was forced off injured and replaced by Bastos (suspended for the Supercoppa).

Malaga then increased the pressure and after a few scrambles had their best chance yet. A long cross by Juankar found Adrian unmarked but the number 8 managed to hit Thomas Strakosha who parried. The Madrid-born midfielder should have scored.

Just before halftime Keita Balde stirred and surged down the left wing but his cross-goal shot came back off the post, 0-0 at the break.

There were no changes for the second half.

In the 55th minute Lazio took the lead. The assist was by Lucas Leiva whose through ball was lobbed over the keeper by Ciro Immobile with a deflection by defender Juankar.

On the hour mark both sides made three substitutions each, for Lazio off came Adam Marusic, Leiva and Senad Lulic and on came Dušan Basta, Luis Alberto and Jordan Lukaku. The Spanish changes included bringing on danger man Youssef En-Nesyri.

Lazio's goal and the changes led to a period of sustained pressure by the Malagueños. The locals piled up the corners but only had one real big chance but Recio was off target from a favourable position.

With fifteen minutes to go Malaga made seven more substitutions while Lazio made three; out went an excellent Stefan de Vrij, Parolo and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and on came Patric, Alessandro Murgia and Davide Di Gennaro.

The game slowed down as it often does with so many changes but Lazio played well on the break and could have scored again with Keita and then Simone Palombi who had replaced the Spanish-Senagalese for the last five minutes. The match winner Ciro Immobile was also spared the final minutes and replaced by Cristiano Lombardi. Final score Malaga 0 Lazio 1.

Another pre-season win for Lazio, seven out of seven. The defence had held well against Liga opposition, Lucas Leiva had impressed as playmaker and the Immobile-Keita had been dangerous up front.

Lazio had prepared well for the Supercoppa appointment in a week's time when things got really serious.

Who played for Malaga

Roberto, Rosales (74' Cifu), Luis Hernández (74' D.Gonzalez), Baysse (74' Mikel), Juankar (74' A.Robles), Kuzmanovic (61' Juanpi), Recio (74' Cecchini), Mula (61' Keko), Jony (74' Chory), Adrián (74' José Carlos), Borja Bastón (61' En -Nesyri)

Substitutes: Andrés, Cengo

Manager: Michel

Who played for Lazio

Strakosha, Wallace, de Vrij (75' Patric), Radu (34' Bastos), Marusic (61' Basta), Parolo (75' Murgia), Leiva (61' Luis Alberto), Milinkovic-Savic (75' Di Gennaro), Lulic (61' Lukaku), Keita (86' Palombi), Immobile (86' Lombardi)