Tottenham and Lazio Europa League Preview

Tottenham and Lazio meet for the first time in a competitive match at White Hart Lane in the first Europa League Group J match on Thursday evening. Lazio will be dangerous opponents coming from the ‘third section’ determined by the co-efficient which UEFA used for ‘seeding’ purposes in the draw for the competition. The Italian team qualified for the Europa League by finishing fourth in last season’s Seria A and defeating Mura 05 from Slovenia in the Play-off Round.

Lazio Connections:

Paul Gascoigne – Lazio connection

The clubs have never met competitively but the major connection between the two clubs centres around one player, Paul Gascoigne. In 1991 the transfer of Gascoigne to Lazio for £8.5 million was agreed as part of the financial package which was put in place to save Tottenham from extinction. Gascoigne’s serious injury in the FA Cup Final put that on hold for a year but was eventually completed in 1992 for a reduced fee of £5.5 million.

The clubs then played two friendly matches, home and away, for the Capital Cup in the autumn of 1992. Lazio won both matches – 3 – 0 in Rome in late September and 2 – 0 the following month in London.

The following pre-season Lazio took part in the Makita International Tournament at White Hart Lane at the end of July. Tottenham defeated them 3 – 2 in the opening match with Colin Calderwood, Darren Anderton and Teddy Sheringham scoring the goals. Calderwood headed in an early Anderton corner and then Sheringham doubled the lead from a Vinny Samways cross. Spurs should have had a first half penalty but them Lazio pulled a goal back with a spot-kick. Sheringham created a third for Anderton before Gascoigne scored a super solo goal to reduce the arrears.

In August, 2002 Lazio were at White Hart Lane for a pre-season friendly with the match ending as a 2 – 2 draw. Dean Richards and Jamie Redknapp scored in Tottenham’s final preparations for the start of the new season. Spurs were two ahead inside twenty minutes with Richards heading them into a second minute lead. Redknapp then marked his first match at White Hart Lane since joining from Liverpool with a twenty five yard screamer. Lazio pulled one goal back with just under half an hour played, through Claudio Lopez and levelled after an hour through Herman Crespo, later of Chelsea.

Lazio 2011-12

Last season Lazio finished fourth in Seria A, with 18 wins and 8 draws from their 38 matches. They were 22 points behind Champions, Juventus, but only two points off third placed, Udinese, who qualified for the final Champions League spot. Lazio scored 56 goals and conceded 47. They won eight away games, including the Rome derby against Roma, completing the ‘double’ over their greatest rivals. Lazio did, however, suffer two heavy defeats in away matches – at Palermo (5 – 1) and against Siena (4 – 0).

In the Italian Cup they reached the quarter-finals where they lost 3 – 1 to AC Milan at the San Siro.

In last season’s Europa League Lazio were second in their Group behind Sporting Lisbon. They suffered only one defeat, away to Sporting, but had only two wins – at home to Sporting and FC Zurich.  Against Atletico Madrid, the eventual winners in the Round of 16, they lost 1 – 4 on aggregate, 1 – 3 at home and 0 – 1 in the away leg.

Lazio’s leading goalscorer in all competitions was Miroslav Klose with 16 while Hernanes scored 10 from midfield.

Current Season

This season Lazio have played 5 matches, three in Seria A and two in the Europa League. They have won all of them – Atalanta (a) Won 1 – 0, Palermo (h) Won 3 – 0 and Chievo (a) Won 3 – 1. They are third in Seria A on goal difference behind Juventus and Napoli. Hernanes and Klose have both scored 4 goals, three in the League and one in Europe.

Their two matches in the Europa League Play-off Round produced comfortable wins against Mura 05. They won the first leg in Slovenia 2 – 0 with a goal in each half from Hernanes and Klose. In the second leg they took a two goal lead in the first half through Kozak and Zarate. Kozak added a second early in the second half before Mura scored a late consolation.

It is clear where the Lazio goal threat will come from so the Tottenham defence will have to be alert to any danger posed. Lazio having made a confident start to the season will be difficult opponents but Tottenham have been lifted by the win at Reading last weekend, both by the result and the performance. With Andre Villas-Boas challenging the players to go out and win the Europa League, he will be expecting  a good result from them to start the campaign off on a positive note. At the pre-match press conference, referring to his Europa League win with Porto in 2011, Villas-Boas mad ehis position clear,

"‘This time it would be wonderful to win it again for Tottenham.’"

Emmanuel Adebayor who might have been expected to start is out with injury as are Benoit Assou-Ekotto and Jake Livermore along with the long term injured Younes Kaboul and Scott Parker. Having stated his desire to do well in the competition there may not be many significant changes to the team with a full strength side being needed to face Lazio. Hugo Lloris may be given his debut in goal to rest Brad Friedel’s aging bones and Clint Dempsey may appear at some time.

Mousa Dembele is approaching the game in a positive frame of mind with his comments at the press conference ahead of the match.

"“Lazio is a big team and I think Panathinaikos will be difficult too so that’s why we have to win this game tomorrow so we can go (to Greece) with more confidence. I am very happy to play for Spurs now. It’s a very big club. I have just been here a few weeks but I have already seen that there is a lot of quality in the side we are a very good team.”"

The comments coming from Tottenham suggest that a different approach is being taken to the Europa League competition compared with previous seasons under Harry Redknapp. Spurs are in a difficult group and will need a good start if they are to finish in the top two places and achieve qualification for the knock-out stages in the spring of 2013.