Starting lineups:

Parma: Mirante, Zaccardo, Paletta, Lucarelli (90’ Santacroce), Biabiany, Mariga, Valdes, Galloppa, Gobbi, Giovinco, Floccari.

Lazio: Marchetti, Konko, Biava, Dias (15’ Scaloni), Radu, Gonzalez, Ledesma, Matuzalem, Mauri (69’ Hernanes), Kozak, Rocchi (62’ Alfaro).

Lazio lost the third out of the four last matches when the team visited Parma late on Saturday. Coach Reja had failed to prepare the team for the tough away game, a trend that has become custom recently, and after a miserable first 15 minutes there was never any signs of Lazio making it back into the game.

Rea decided to leave Hernanes out and to try Mauri in a central offensive midfield role, while he had his preferred back four back together. Up front the forward chosen to stay with Lazio ahead of Floccari, who today punished Lazio for forcing him out of the squad in the summer, partnered Rocchi and eventually Kozak showed how useless he is in comparison to the match deciding Floccari.

Early on it was evident Lazio would suffer against a Parma that had gone months without winning. The team fourth from the bottom of the table played around with the third team of the league like the standings had been turned upside down. Mariga got the early lead, after only six minutes, and after another six minutes Floccari doubled the lead. The attacker was lively all through the game and definitely showed he had a point to prove in a game where the coach who did not want him around, and a president that finally sent him packing, must have been wishing they could travel back in time and stop the move.

Parma looked a little shocked over having such an uninterested opponent to deal with, after all the motivation in a team battling for CL should be evident on the pitch. With a Lazio without a game plan and without the proper guidance to react to the miserable start, the advantage in possession handed to Lazio after the early push by the hosts did not bring Lazio anything to cheer over. The visitors looked completely lost, and it was only through a deflected shot by Scaloni that Lazio got on the score sheet. The 2-1 goal should have boosted Lazio, and with the break at half time at hand to fire up his players, Reja was surely to get something better out of his men in the second half.

Also the last 45 minutes came to be torture for the Lazio faithful, Neither coach nor players had any ideas on how to wake up from the dead. Apart from a weak Kozak header on a corner, interestingly enough one of many few headers won by a player whose major attribute is being tall and heading the ball despite balls being sent high and long towards him all through the game, Lazio did not create any lethal attacks towards Mirante in the Parma goal.

It was the above mentioned Floccari that killed the game with a volley, on a good cross by the most entertaining player on the pitch, after 72 minutes. Konko totally lost his marking on the fire up striker, and even though Floccari did not celebrate his goals against his former employer he must have felt revenge had been taken on the coach as well as the president. Floccari would have been the undoubted number one choice in Lazio if still in Rome, a fact that makes one wonder how a top team can be functioning with so much incompetence at the top of the hierarchy.

Lazio can now see themselves passed by two teams, if yet on goal difference, before this round is over and there is nothing at the moment pointing at Lazio being able to turn the losing trend around against powerful opposition such as juventus and Napoli – the two teams awaiting in the league fixtures.

(Khashayar Kashefi)