Fiorentina vs. Lazio
October 10, 2022
The Stage
The final match of Round 9 in Serie A
The venue is the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence, Italy
The hosts, Fiorentina, are currently 11th in the standings and are unbeaten at home this season
The visitors, Lazio, are sixth in the table, and only five points behind league leaders Napoli
Fiorentina fans welcome both sides from the tunnel in full voice belting out the club’s official anthem
Fiorentina (left) played hosts at the Stadio Artemio Franchi to a visiting in form Lazio side (right)
Key Moments
4:00 - First big chance falls early to the home side but Fiorentina striker, Luka Jovic, wastes his effort by shooting tamely at Lazio keeper, Ivan Provedel
5:00 - Yet another opportunity lands to Jovic, but once again he fluffs his lines and skies the ball over the goal
6:00 - Fiorentina are relentless early on. Winger, Jonathan Ikone, pops up this time with an angled shot that forces Provedel into a good save
8:00 - Ivory Coast winger, Christian Kouame, is having a field day down Fiorentina’s left wing giving Lazio right back, Manuel Lazzari, fits
11:00 - Completely against the run of play, a corner resulting from a Lazio counter attack sees former Fiorentina player, Matias Vecino’s, flicked header put Lazio ahead 0-1
25:00 - Another counter attack from Lazio ends with another flicked header, this time from Mattia Zaccagni, and it’s 0-2 to the visitors
45:00 - Despite going down by two against the run of play, Fiorentina are still dominating play and possession. Mandragora rifles a shot, which gets deflected and hits the crossbar. The ensuing corner forces Provedel into another save to keep the Lazio clean sheet in tact
Halftime - 0-2 to Lazio. The home side have dominated the majority of the first half, but have nothing to show for it. They go into the break realizing they have created very little in relation to their possessions stats, meanwhile their opponents have been clinical resulting in a two-goal lead halfway through the match
46:00 - Nico Gonzalez, on for Jonathan Ikone, misses a glorious chance to get Fiorentina on the board. The Argentine international completely misses the ball on what would have been a virtual tap in
54:00 - Lazio counter effectively once again, but this time talisman, Ciro Immobile, fires his shot against the crossbar
86:00 - It’s another counter attack from Lazio, and this time the third goal is scored by Luis Alberto crushing Fiorentina’s hopes
90:00+1 - Lazio haven’t had enough, and this time, with Fiorentina already checked out, they make it 0-4 through Immobile’s well taken goal
Full time - The visitors get a resounding 0-4 victory at the Franchi, and Fiorentina will have to wave goodbye to their unbeaten run at home this season. Despite having less possession for large stretches of the match, Lazio were ultimately the more efficient and opportunistic team deserving of the victory
Takeaways
Fiorentina coach, Vincenzo Italiano, will be quite perplexed that his side enjoyed roughly 60 percent of possession for large stretches of the match, but failed to create much in front of goal. When they did manage to construct chances, however, they were far too profligate with Jovic and Gonzalez being particularly wasteful. The wide players in the first half, Ikone and Kouame, certainly had the pace and technical ability to cause problems, but they spent far too much time drifting into the middle instead of stretching the Lazio defense using width. Italiano tried to address this by replacing both wingers with more central players like Saponara and Gonzalez, but neither player was able to stamp their creative mark on the match
Italiano (left) will rue Fiorentina’s lack of creativity, while Lazio’s Sarri (right) will be pleased with the victory
Maurizio Sarri, who typically wants his sides to employ a more possession based and attacking style, will still be pleased with the result of the match despite those two things lacking. In the end it was a more opportunistic and counterattacking approach from Lazio, and even though that isn’t traditional from Sarri teams, he/they can still leave pleased after the emphatic victory moved them up to third in the table
Awards
Man of the match - Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. The Lazio midfielder was in fine form during this match helping the team retain possession fairly well as they sat deep inviting pressure. His ability on the ball, combined with his vision, is what helped Lazio transition effectively from defensive positions into quick counterattacks. He set up two of Lazio’s four goals on the night, and also created a third opportunity that wasn’t scored
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s performance in the midfield was enough to earn him the man of the match
Best skill of the match - Sergej Milinkovic-Savic back heel. The man of the match was responsible for a sublime bit of skill that ended up assisting Immobile for Lazio’s third goal. Following a chip over the Fiorentina backline from Luis Alberto, which Milinkovic-Savic calmly brought under control with a great first touch, the Serbian immediately placed a deft back heel right into the path of Immobile who only had to redirect the pass on goal to get on the scoresheet for the night