Italian Serie A preview: SS Lazio – Inter Milan (Part 1)
Aquile stuttering
Lazio made a brilliant start to their league campaign this time around and went soaring in the opening rounds. The Roman club occupied the top spot in the rankings for much of the season before AC Milan took over. The Aquile performances have been a far
cry from a side that battled with relegation for most of last season.
Claudio Lotito is a good business man but a complete disaster when he gets down to the notorious dressing room interventions. Such occurrences have been too rare, which shows in their league position. After 14 rounds of football, Biancocelesti are second
in the league with 27 points, three points below Milan and a similar margin separates them from third placed Juventus.
However, the recent results have left a lot to be desired. Aquilotti have only managed a rather poor five points from their last five league encounters. The bigger worry is the fact that Lazio have dropped points to lower ranked teams such as Cesena, Parma
and Catania. Coach Eduardo Reja will be eager to return to winning ways when his troops go head-to-head with Inter Milan. Where a victory will kick start the Lazio season, it might bring about the end to Rafa Benitez’s Italian adventure.
Hernanes and Stefano Mauri have been the stars of the Aquile season so far. The two players struggled with form in recent matches. However, Hernanes returned to scoring ways last match day and Lazio will be hopeful of three points.
Nerazzuri still struggling
Inter Milan are no way near the all conquering machine they were under Jose Mourinho last season. The club is struggling for any sort of consistency as evident by their fifth place in the league. Rafa Benitez’s side have accumulated only 23 points so far
this season, 7 points off league leaders and arch-rivals AC Milan.
In the 14 games that have been played so far, Nerazzuri stats read 6 won, 5 drawn and 3 lost. Compare that to the results achieved by Jose Mourinho last term. At this point in the season, Nerazzuri had played two fewer games and the statistics read, 10 won,
1 draw and 1 lost. Little wonder Nerazzuri are outside the top four for the first time since the start of 2006 season.
Nerazzuri returned to winning ways against Parma after four league games without a victory. The score line might have read an impressive 5 – 2 but Inter were far from being the dominant side. Ducali missed a host of golden opportunities with Hernan Crespo
missing a hat-trick of chances. Nerazzuri had all the luck in the world as Dejan Stankovic scored two highly fortuitous goals. Lady luck has finally shown her softer touch to Nerazzuri who have been terribly unlucky with injuries.
The game will be of huge importance to both the sides as a defeat will condemn Aquile out of the top four while Inter will be lagging 10 points behind the leaders and Rafa will have to go home packing.
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