Marco Baroni began his Lazio adventure with a 3-1 win over Venezia with Taty Castellanos cementing himself as the star of the show.
First Half: Lazio 2-1 Venezia
The Biancocelesti hosted the newly promoted side at the Stadio Olimpico on the opening Serie A matchday, but their outing began on a terrible note as Magnus Andersen gave the visitors the lead with a sublime curling effort in the third minute.
Nevertheless, Castellanos rose to the occasion, dragging the team back into the contest. The Argentine striker jumped on Michael Svoboda and managed to dispossess the hapless Verona defender and then made no mistake in front of the goal.
Afterwards, the former Girona man latched on a square ball from Tijjani Noslin, placed himself in front of Marin Šverko and cleverly won a spot-kick while the Croatian defender was trying to clear the ball. New Lazio captain Mattia Zaccagni has also inherited Ciro Immobile’s penalty-kick duty, and he succeeded in converting his first attempt of the season, putting the home in the lead before half-time.
Second Half: Lazio 3-1 Venezia
In the second period, Castellanos came close to bagging his second of the night but was thwarted by the post on two occasions. The Venetians also threatened to snatch an equalizer, but Ridgeciano Haps lacked composure in front of goal.
Eventually, it was an own goal that killed the contest in favour of the capital club. Manuel Lazzari drove forward on the right flank and tried to pick up Loum Tchaouna with a square ball across the mouth of the goal, but it was the unlucky Giorgio Altare who placed it in his own net.
Hence, Baroni managed to pass his first official test as Lazio manager, with the team showing some promising signs, including new signings like Noslin and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru.
Lazio vs Venezia: Match Recap
SCORERS: 3′ Andersen, 11′ Castellanos, 43′ (P) Zaccagni, 81′ (OG) Altare
LAZIO (4-3-3): Provedel; Lazzari, Casale, Romagnoli, Marusic; Guendouzi (87′ Castrovilli), Rovella (64′ Vecino), Dele-Bashiru; Noslin (76′ Isaksen), Castellanos (87′ Pedro), Zaccagni (76′ Tchaouna).
VENEZIA (3-4-2-1): Joronen; Altare, Svoboda, Sverko; Sagardo (53′ Pierini), Andersen (85′ Raimondo), Duncan, Zampano; Oristanio (53′ Haps), Ellertsson (69′ Crnigoj); Gytkjaer (85′ Lella).
Still not convinced with the formation..but the boys did well.
Forza lazio
The formation I think will work, the lads are adaptin. 2-3 matches to gel and when the midfield realise how much they can do in both phases (look at Dele Bashiru, man was EVERYWHERE) and we already had Goundozi and Rovella will evolve more. Vecino is a great, calm player, consistent and chips in with the odd goal here and there.
We are in for a treat, Baroni might have been a blessing in disguise.
A necessary win, but we must work on set pieces and on regrouping when losing the ball.
So my opinion is Baroni is the man of the match. Man worked magic, the season is long so let’s see. He seems to have the knowledge of Capello(informationwise), demand of Vincenzo Italiano (in dynamic terms), the set up of a modern football 4-2-3-1 that can turn on occasion into 4-3-3 and the touch of Simone Inzaghi😍(from the point of view of connecting with the players).
This is something that surprised me, in a massively good way. He is flexible, he used the substitutes at the right time and his team went down in the 3 minute! Imagine Sarris, Tudor or even Simones Lazio going down like that, we basically almost always crumbled . Not now so the mentality did improve. Even when up we kept pushing and it made me literally cheer and chant from home with the Curva Nord(I know most chants and songs so I recognise them all in the match even from home) so this is a new Lazio.
Ps: Ciro scored another brace for Besiktas, Luis is doing well in Quatar and the Sergeant is lighting up the middle east. Pipe will probably smash the Brazil 1st div so guys, I think Lazio is growing and growing. Lotito it’s your turn to build the stadium or sell the club to a competent mew owner and we can’t ask for more.
Sempre Forza Lazio 🦅
PS2: Crystal Palace lost (Kamada 😂)