FR: Lazio vs Arsenal | 02/08/07

[RC8]

Well, since Nadz hasn't created one and the game will be soon, I thought I'd start one myself.

Venue:


The game will be played at the Amsterdam Arena, as part of the Amsterdam Tournament. For more information about this tournament and the teams that will participate go to:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.lgamsterdamtournament.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.lgamsterdamtournament.com/</a>

The draw is as follows:

Thursday 2 August 2007
18:30 CET: Lazio – Arsenal
20:45 CET: Ajax – Atlético Madrid

Saturday 4 August 2007
19.00 CET: Lazio – Atlético Madrid
21.15 CET: Ajax – Arsenal

Lazio is an Italian team from Rome. Their home ground is the Stadio Olimpico, although there are plans to move to a new stadium Founded in January 9, 1900, the club has evolved into one of the finest in Serie A, and has challenged for the trophy numerous times.

Team Honours:

* Serie A: 2

1973-74, 1999-2000

* Coppa Italia: 4

1958, 1997-98, 1999-00, 2003-04

* Italian Super Cup: 2

1998, 2000

* UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1

1998-99

* European Super Cup: 1

1999

* Coppa delle Alpi: 1

1971

They are a good opponent, but since they aren't very fit at the moment, we should win this as long as we are able to play our game.

The rules of the Amsterdam Tournament are simple. If you win you get 3 points, if you draw you get 1 point. But you will be awarded an extra point for every goal you score, so that there isn't a draw at the end of the 4 fixtures that will be played.


Further information about Lazio, from the official Amsterdam Tournament website:

The Italian top-club Lazio returns to the LG Amsterdam Tournament after six years. The team of coach Delio Rossi finished third in the prestigious Serie A, securing Champions League preliminaries for next year. The Romans last won the Scudetto – the national title – in 2000 and they are very eager to repeat this success next season.

After having faced some very difficult years, a successful period started with the arrival of Sergio Cragnotti in 1992. He changed the club's history forever as he was prepared to invest long term in new players for the club in order to make the team a competitor on the Serie A level. From 1993 to 1998 Lazio finished among the top five in the league. In 1999 it lost the championship just by one point to A.C. Milan on the last day of the championship. In 2000 they finally won their second Scudetto, as well as the Italian Cup in an impressive double, with Sven-Göran Eriksson (1997-2001) as manager.

In addition to the aforementioned one, Lazio had two other Coppa Italia triumphs in recent years, in 1998 and 2004. They also won the last ever UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1999 with world class players like Mihajlovic, Nedved and Roberto Mancini, the current coach of Italian champions Internazionale. Lazio won the Italian Super Cup twice and defeated Manchester United in 2000 to win the European Super Cup.

We won the Amsterdam Tournament in 2006, with wins against Porto and Ajax.

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Good job, RC8.

 

[longrufus]

*nods*

However Gunner_Nadz is going to be maaaaaaaad!

 

[nidza7]

finally ,well done rc8

 

[GoonerGurjit]

I love the Amsterdam Arena. It's one of my favourite stadiums.

 

[Wenger14]

*nods*

However Gunner_Nadz is going to be maaaaaaaad!

Nah, he's a lovely chap! Well can't be as bad as Thierry's Girl with the motm threads

 

[nidza7]

what you reckon guys for this one?

easy one?

 

[GoonerGurjit]

LAZIO SQUAD LIST:

2 DF Guglielmo Stendardo
3 DF Aleksandar Kolarov
4 MF Fabio Firmani
5 MF Massimo Mutarelli
6 DF Lionel Scaloni
7 DF Manuel Belleri
8 DF Luciano Zauri (captain)
10 MF Roberto Baronio
11 MF Stefano Mauri
13 DF Sebastiano Siviglia
14 GK Tommaso Berni (on loan from Ternana)
15 DF Mobido Diakité
17 FW Igli Tare
18 FW Tommaso Rocchi
19 FW Goran Pandev
20 FW Stephen Makinwa
21 FW Simone Inzaghi
23 MF Mourad Meghni
24 MF Cristian Daniel Ledesma
25 DF Emilson Sanchez Cribari
26 MF Gaby Mudingayi
29 MF Lorenzo De Silvestri (from youth team)
32 GK Marco Ballotta
68 MF Christian Manfredini
81 FW Simone Del Nero
85 MF Valon Behrami
GK Massimo Zallocco

 

[IBL]

Would be nice to have Ade, Eduardo and Djourou back for this one, we looked good against Inter and I hope to see more of the same with the inclusion of these three

 

[f4evo]

they finished third despite a 11 point deduction, plus considering they only finished 6th the season before, they're a team back on the up

will be an interesting match this

 

[GoonerGurjit]

Lazio use to be a side full of big names. They don't have many these days. They beat West Ham last week, and beat Southampton 5-2 the other day.

 

[Nutsy]

*nods*

However Gunner_Nadz is going to be maaaaaaaad!

Oh You don't know me well! Will take time for you though I'm a fairly good guy. Don't cross me is all I ask and it takes a hell lot more than match threads to cross me. Good job RC8, couldn't done it better myself. Besides I've been busy. Today's(7.01am 31st July) the birthday for this "old" chap. 20 years young and I've been partying all night and will be again later on.

I'll have you know, most of my match threads are heleped by Mr. RC8 there.

so Relaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaax!

 

[gunnerama911]

Should be an interesting match and a lot of players to look out for particularly Behrami and Pandev. Pandev always looks like a quality whenever I've seen him and he played fantastically well in a poor Macedonia side against England.

Finishing third after an 11 point deduction is a great achievement so they should not be taken lightly. Even so I'm predicting a win for us as I don't see them coming out and attacking us with intent.

 

[kamikaze80]

happy bday nadz. nice job, RC8!

looking forward to seeing eduardo against better opposition.

 

[RC8]

Happy birthday Nadz, I'm glad you are celebrating properly

And thanks to whoever added the UK time to the title, I was planning to do that and found out it had been done already.

I love the Amsterdam Arena. It's one of my favourite stadiums.

It is a beautiful stadium indeed. Although I wouldn't be happy at all if it was my team's home. It just feels too artificial for my liking. It is absolutely great when you are the away team though!

Let's see if we can make a pre-season cup double come next weekend. These are not real trophies (unlike Sp**s would like you to believe), but they are fantastic to generate much needed chemistry among the players. For instance, if we'd beaten Inter and had not won the Cup in the process, we wouldn't have seen the players half as happy after the game.

 

[run]

Yes...I'm hoping Eduardo will get a good run in the side in this tournament. In his post-inter press conference Arsène said the sides he features in Amsterdam will look more like those he will use in season. I am very curious to see how he plans to use our new striker.

 

[ronitc]

Not bothered about a win or a loss. Would rather see the team play well and am looking forward to seeing Eduardo play. I want to see Eduardo given a half with both Ade and Robin. Ade and Robin are set to be our first choice partnership but from the tournament I want to get a sense of who Eduardo can form a partnership with.

Also hope we play 4-4-2 with Hleb on the left and Walcott on the right for 1 of the 2 matches at least.

Not bothered by Cesc's low key performances so far. I think he's been given a slightly longer rest by Arsène after playing an incredible amount of games last season. Plus he seems like the type of player that will step up a couple of gears when the real stuff starts.

I'd like Djourou to get some match time too. I'm sure he will get some minutes in the league especially with Kolo + Eboue going to ACN.

 

[banduan]

I want to see the players missing from the Emirates Cup to feature in this one. Particularly want to see Rosicky, Dudu and Walcott.

I've made my mind up about Adebayor. He's not really going to be our main striker. But I like his spirit and would like to see him play again.

And I agree with Ronitc, Hleb on the left should be played here to see how well he'd do.

Rosicky should be placed in the 'hole' position to see how he fares.

RVP should be rested for this match, we already know what he can do and a lot of the rust has gone.

It looks like Djorou is headed for a loan spell? Or is he injured?

After these two matches we'd get a very clear picture of what should constitue our first 11.

 

[qs]

I object to things being posted in CET, GMT FTW.

Is it then half 5 GMT?

 

[albakos]

Valon Behrami is a great player for Lazio. He is a regular Swiss national team player, and is considered as one of the best talents of Switzerland at only 21 yrs.

He used to play in right side of midfield, but since Lazio sold Massimo Oddo to AC Milan, they moved Behrami to play in RB position and he proved himself worth of that position too, and is an undisputed option for RB.


I look forward to seeing some comments about him after the game.