Caicedo to the rescue … again
As usual Caicedo scores in the last minutes of the game to secure a golden point
Also on this day: November 4, 1928: Lazio Pistoiese 4-0. Lazio crush a very weak Pistoiese thanks to Spivach, Cevenini, Bodrato and Griggio. Lazio Legend of the day: Aldo Spivach
The season so far
The previous season Lazio had come fourth securing a Champions League qualification for the first time since 2007. At one point there were even scudetto hopes, but the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic and the forced stoppage took away the exceptional state of form Lazio were in so they had to settle for fourth.
This season there were high hopes to maintain the position acquired last year and to do well in CL. In the summer transfer window new players arrived: Pepe Reina (free agent), Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro (Salernitana), Gonzalo Escalante (free agent), Mohamed Fares (Spal), Andreas Pereira (on loan from Manchester United), Vedat Muriqi (Fenerbahçe) and the return of Wesley Hoedt on loan from Southampton. Leaving Lazio were Jordan Lukaku (loan to Antwerp), André Anderson (loan to Salernitana), Jony (loan to Osasuna), Bobby Adekanye (loan to Cadiz), Valon Berisha (Stade Reims), Riccardo Kishna and Ivan Vargic who had not renewed their contracts.
The summer was characterised by the possible arrival of David Silva, splendid Spanish midfielder who had not renewed his contract with Manchester City. The first contacts between the player's agent, his brother Nandez Jimenez, started on July 27. The first offer arrived on August 4: three-year contract, 10 billion euros gross, apartment in central Rome, use of private jet. Jimenez arrived in Rome on August 7 to fine tune the details and all was decided. David Silva would be playing for Lazio.
Slight problem. He had not signed the contract. Lazio sent the documentation and waited. The agent literally disappeared and Silva continued to train with Man City. Sports director Igli Tare tried to reach out to the player and his entourage but to no avail. The club decided to issue an ultimatum for August 16. Still no news. On the 17th Jimenez contacted Lazio to say that the deal was off and a few hours later Silva signed for Real Sociedad.
What happened? David Silva’s agent used Lazio to get a deal with Real Sociedad. As a consequence, with the fans fuming with anger at Tare for not having closed the deal, the club got anxious and signed Muriqi paying him way too much. But Igli needed to send a sign to calm things down. A big mistake.
The season started in late September and so far, the Biancocelesti had not done well. They were eighth, tied with Sampdoria. They had won three (two in the last two games) and drawn with Inter but had been crushed by Sampdoria away and Atalanta at home.
In the Champions League it was a different story. In their first game against Erling Haaland’s Borussia Dortmund, Lazio put on a marvellous display and won 3-1. They then drew with Bruges away despite having many players out due to Covid. The emergency continued today and Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto, Lucas Leiva, Thomas Strakosha and Manuel Lazzari were all missing.
The match: Wednesday, November 4, 2020, Saint Petersburg Stadium, Saint Petersburg
In the 13th minute Joaquin Correa directly from a corner tried to surprise the Zenit goalkeeper but the ball caressed the outside of the goal. That was practically the only real thrill in the first 30 minutes of a game in which the two teams were probably too afraid of losing to be able to be dangerous. Lazio were however justified in having such a prudent approach since so many players were missing due to Covid.
Then, suddenly in the 32nd minute, Zenit went ahead. Jurij Zirkov put a splendid ball into the box from the left, the giant Artem Dzjuba stopped the ball with his shoulder, ball in the air headed by Daler Kuzjaev back to Dzjuba, who headed again to Aleksandr Erokhin who in solitude volleyed the ball past Pepe Reina with the Lazio defence just watching.
Lazio's reaction was all in a 36th minute innocuous Vedat Muriqi header over the crossbar.
Nothing else happened in the first 45 minutes. In the 52nd Simone Inzaghi sent in Danilo Cataldi for Marco Parolo in the attempt to create something/anything and seven minutes later Andres Pereira and Felipe Caicedo came on for Mohamed Fares and Muriqi. Erokhin was also substituted by Andrey Mostovoj who immediately had the chance to make it two for Zenit. He received the ball on the left, dribbled past a couple of players and once in the box tried a shot which went just out.
In the 74th minute there was a probable penalty on Adam Marusic ignored by the ref. The Biancocelesti showed some signs of waking up and in the 76th minute Francesco Acerbi sent a long ball from the left into the box, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic headed towards Caicedo who tried a header that went just wide. Box to box for Correa in the 79th minute but his shot was too weak.
Lazio alive and kicking. In the 81st minute Pereira to Acerbi on the left, low cross into the box, in came Caicedo who volleyed the ball past the keeper for the 1-1.
The Biancocelesti even went close to winning the game. Milinkovic-Savic from outside the box in the 87th minute tried a fantastic volley which shaved the post. The big Serb made a terrible mistake in injury time as he passed to Alksej Sutormin, ball to Dzjuba, quick pass to Mostovoj who scored. Fortunately Dzjuba was offside.
A good draw for Lazio in very difficult circumstances.
Who played for Zenit Saint Petersburg
Kerzhakov, Karavaev, Lovren, Rakitskiy, Douglas Santos, Zhirkov (78' Krugovoi), Erokhin (61' Mostovoy), Barrios, Ozdoev (91' Sutormin), Kuzyaev (91' Wendel), Dzjuba
Substitutes: Vasyutin, Lunev, Prokhin, Shamkin
Manager: Semak
Who played for Lazio
Reina, Patric, Hoedt, Acerbi, Marusic, Akpa Akpro, Parolo (53’ Cataldi), Milinkovic-Savic, Fares (60’ Pereira), Correa (85’ Luiz Felipe), Muriqi (60’ Caicedo)
Substitutes: Furnaletto, Alia, Armini, Franco, Pica, Bertini, Czyz
Manager: Inzaghi
Referee: Dias
Goals: 32’ Erokhin, 81’ Caicedo
What happened next
The season was characterised by great games, on a par with the previous season, and matches where Lazio were completely absent. So often the team would make three steps forward one week and two back the week after. And these steps back were often against “weaker teams”.
Why were there problems? There were probably four reasons.
Lazio, for the first time in many many years, were in the Champions League. This sapped some of the strength out of the team.
The second problem was that the players purchased in the summer were not doing well and the much-needed reinforcements came in areas where there was no need (€20 million for Vedat Muriqi) instead of where they were desperately needed (defence).
Simone Inzaghi was making many mistakes. He chose Mohamed Fares and the return of Wesley Hoedt in the transfer window and they were just not good enough; he kept on insisting to play Joaquin Correa who was the shadow of the previous season; kept Luis Alberto on the pitch for 90 minutes on his off days and substituted him early in the second half on his good days; had problems in reading the games and therefore often blundered substitutions. The management of Thomas Strakosha was also terrible and ruined not only the player but also his relationship with the club.
The last problem was Covid. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Lazio had lost themselves. Before Covid they were on top of their game, since, they were struggling.
In the Champions League the Biancocelesti managed to reach the knockout phase but were eliminated by Bayern Munich. In Coppa Italia they reached the quarter finals but were defeated by Atalanta.
At the end of the first half of the season they were sixth with Napoli and had four consecutive victories, including a 3-0 in the derby. The wins on the trot (including beating Atalanta in Bergamo) became six before falling to Inter. However, an unjustifiable loss at Bologna in February took them back to where they started. Another five consecutive wins allowed the Biancocelesti to fight for 4th place before being hammered 5-2 by Napoli. There was still hope after beating Milan at home for 3-0 but another black out against Fiorentina and a dismal performance against Roma were the nail in the coffin as far as a Champions League qualification went. At least Lazio qualified for the Europa League.
The player with most appearances this season was Marusic with 46 games and the top scorer was obviously Immobile with 25 goals.
Lazio 2020-21
Competition | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Goals scored |
Serie A | 38 | 21 | 5 | 12 | 61 |
Coppa Italia | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | 4 |
Champions League | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 |
Total | 48 | 24 | 9 | 15 | 78 |
Top five appearances
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Marusic | 46 | 36 | 2 | 8 |
Acerbi | 42 | 32 | 2 | 8 |
Akpa-Akbro | 42 | 32 | 2 | 8 |
Immobile | 41 | 35 | 1 | 5 |
Milinkovic-Savic | 41 | 32 | 2 | 7 |
Top five goal scorers
Player | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
Immobile | 25 | 20 | - | 5 |
Correa | 11 | 8 | - | 3 |
Luis Alberto | 9 | 9 | - | - |
Caicedo | 9 | 8 | - | 1 |
Milinkovic-Savic | 8 | 8 | - | - |
Let’s talk about Mohamed Fares
Mohamed Fares was born on February 15, 1996 in Aubervilliers in France. He began playing football in the youth teams of Bordeaux but soon moved to Italy where, after spending 2012-13 with Vicenza, he signed for Verona. He debuted in the first team on December 14 2014 in the Serie A match against Udinese. That year he made two appearances and continued to play for the Primavera. He stayed until 2018 with Verona making 64 appearances with one goal.
In 2018 he signed for Spal in Serie A. He played left back with Manuel Lazzari right back and the duo were among the best in Serie A. Lazzari joined Lazio in 2019, Fares stayed in Ferrara but played very little due to a serious injury. Despite this, Simone Inzaghi chose him to take Senad Lulic' place at Lazio and in 2020 he left for Rome.
Unfortunately, he was not the same as before the injury. He made 29 appearances without leaving much of a trace. What followed were a number of years on loan: six months at Genoa, then a move to Torino in January 2022 where he immediately had another injury which kept him out for a while. Back at Lazio, in 2022-23 he never played and in September he was loaned to Brescia in Serie B where he made 16 appearances. He is currently on loan to Panserraïkos in the Greek first tier.
He has 12 caps with Algeria and participated in the Africa Cup of Nations of 2019 where he played two games. Algeria then went on to win the tournament beating Senegal in the final 1-0.
Lazio career
Season | Total | Serie A | Coppa Italia | Champions League |
2020-21 | 29 | 21 | 2 | 6 |
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