Lazio look to last the distance
Rome, Oct. 15: Serie A leaders Lazio have been in buoyant mood in the last two weeks after their unexpectedly bright start to the league season.
The Rome side are two points clear at the top having won four, drawn one and lost one in their opening six games of the campaign. It has been a remarkable turnaround for a cash-strapped club forced to sell its best players, with full-back Aleksandar Kolarov joining Manchester City and striker Goran Pandev leaving for Inter Milan earlier this year.
Their flying start has left club president Claudio Lotito extolling the virtues of coach Edy Reja. “He’s a wonderful person with incredible inner strength, but most of all he’s a great leader in the changing room,” he said.
Lotito’s gratitude may be partly explained by the president’s unpopularity among the club’s fans, who regularly protested against him and the team last year, with some even invading the training complex and forcing players to train indoors on one occasion. There is now new-found optimism within the camp, not least after midfielder Stefano Mauri’s recent Italy recall.
Lazio travel to Bari in Sunday’s late game in a match that is anything other than straightforward, given that they are unbeaten at home.
Should the biancocelesti slip up, three teams sit two points behind and ready to take advantage: the Milan neighbours and Napoli. Champions Inter are in disarray due to an injury crisis that leaves them with only two fit central midfielders in Dejan Stankovic and rebel Sulley Muntari. Inter are likely to be boosted by return of Javier Zanetti, who could play in midfield, but there are still doubts over Diego Milito, Pandev and Jonathan Biabiany.
Italian league fixtures
* Saturday matches
AC Milan vs Chievo, Roma vs Genoa.
* Sunday matches
Cagliari vs Inter Milan, Brescia vs Udinese, Catania vs Napoli, Cesena vs Parma, Juventus vs Lecce, Palermo vs Bologna, Sampdoria vs Fiorentina, Bari vs Lazio.
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