Humiliation

Simon Basten

Sep 14, 2022

3 min read

Updated: Oct 21

2022-23 Season

Europa League Group Stage

Group F, Game 2

Thursday, September 15, 2022

Previous Match Next

Herning, Arena Herning

Midtjylland Lazio 5-1

Awful, awful, awful, awful, awful

The teams

Maurizio Sarri on the one hand decided for a little more turnover and on the other was also forced by injuries to change things a bit in the starting line-up for this second Europa League game. Midtjylland needed to win to keep up their hopes of going through to the next round since they had lost their first match.

Lazio absent

Last year Lazio had several blackouts – matches where nothing worked, where even the most basic things became impossible and where the opposition created problems far too easily. It had not happened so far this season so one would have thought and hoped the problem had been resolved. This game however showed it is still very much there.

Lazio began the game at a slow pace thinking it would not take too much to beat the struggling Danish team. This was exactly what Midtjylland wanted. One could see a mile off that the Danes would be dangerous on the counter attack. Lazio were just too slow.

In the 27th minute Gustav Isaksen entered the penalty box and faced Danilo Cataldi, dribbled past him and shot, the ball hit the crossbar and bounced back into play where Anders Dreyer picked it up and crossed in to Evander who passed it to Paulinho. The Brazilian was given far too much space by his marker Mario Gila, so had the time to turn and score.

Three minutes later Midtjylland made it two. Dreyer passed the ball to Isaksen in the penalty box but he was too far forward. Gila slipped, the ball reached Kaba who had no difficulty in scoring.

In the 33rd minute corner for the Danes. Henrik Dalsgaard got a header in but Ivan Provedel saved. Four minutes later Lazio finally had a goal scoring chance. Matias Vecino just outside the penalty box, dead centre, had the chance to shoot but instead he passed it to the right for Pedro whose shot was well saved by Jonas Lossi.

From bad to worse

In the 49th minute Luis Alberto took a corner. The ball hit the base of the post and the Midtjylland defence picked up the ball and started a counter attack. Isaksen beat both Stefan Radu and Cataldi and charged into the penalty box from the right. Cataldi tugged his jersey, Isaksen collapsed to the ground as if hit by a meteorite and it was a penalty.

My dear Danilo... Had past experience not told you never, never, never, grab your opponent’s jersey in the penalty box in European games? If you did, it would always be a penalty. Ask Lucas Leiva (against Cluj in 2019) and Patric (against Bruges in 2020) for details.

Evander makes it 3-0.

Two minutes later Sarri decided it wss time for some changes. Out went Radu, Vecino and Pedro and in came Adam Marusic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Matteo Cancellieri.

Lazio woke up and scored. In the 57th minute Ciro Immobile passed the ball to Milinkovic-Savic outside the penalty box but in a central position. The Serb shot, Lossi misjudges it and the ball went in.

Was a Lazio comeback possible? Marusic made sure it did not happen. In the 67th minute Isaksen, who else, entered the penalty box and Adam tripped him up. Another penalty. Evander’s shot was saved but Isaksen tapped in the rebound.

At that point in came Marcos Antonio and out went Cataldi who struggled right from the start and should have been substituted a lot earlier. But in the 72nd minute it was s 5-1. Cross from the right that travelled across the entire penalty box and while all the Lazio defence were busy looking at the stars, Erik Sviatchenko scored.

Sarri gave Immobile twenty minutes rest and in came Luka Romero in the 76th minute.

At the end of the game Lazio had a couple of chances but first Cancellieri’s attempt was deflected into a corner and later a Felipe Anderson shot went wide.

Better forget this game had ever taken place.

Who played for Midtjylland

Lossl, Thychosen, Sviatchenko, Dalsgaard, Paulinho, Olsson, Martinez (62' Charles), Evander, Isaksen (76' Chilufya), Kaba (87' Byskov), Dreyer (62' Sisto)

Substitutes: Olafsson, Ugboh, Gartenmann, J. Andersson, Kouakou, A. Hansen, Sorensen, Juninho.

Manager: Capellas

Who played for Lazio

Provedel, Hysaj, Gila, Romagnoli, Radu (53' Marusic), Vecino (53' Milinkovic-Savic), Cataldi (69' Marcos Antonio), Luis Alberto, Felipe Anderson, Immobile (76' Romero), Pedro (52' Cancellieri)