Sarris Lazio beat the Juventus taboo

Last night’s 2-1 win over Juventus saw Maurizio Sarris Lazio beat all the big names in our league at least once: Napoli at San Paolo (0-1), Roma in the two derbies (both won 1-0), the two Milan (4-0 vs Milan, 3-1 vs Inter), Atalanta (in Bergamo, 0-2) and now Max Allegri’s team. The Bianconeri, coached by the Livorno Demon, had represented an authenticity for Sarris Lazio kryptonite until now: last year 0-2 in the Olimpico and 2-2 (at the last minute thanks to a Milinkovic-Savic goal) in the penultimate league game. This year 3-0 in Turin without appeal and 1-0 in the Italian Cup in the quarter-finals (again in Turin). In short, Lazio v Juventus had become a script adapted in several versions: Lazio in apparent control, almost never dangerous, and indeed cloaked in its own infinite phrasing. On the other hand, Allegris Juventus was happy to slip into the Sarriana spider web and then slip into the holes it produced at the first opportunity.

Yesterday, however, the script surprised even the law doctors. And it reminded us of the great lesson – and, so to speak, the great secret – of football: every game is unique, unpredictable. In the first half, Lazio crushed Juventus in their own half, but with quality and malice – unsurprisingly underlined by Rabiot in the aftermath – which ousted Allegri’s men (he was absent yesterday with the flu). It wasn’t there usual Lazio dribbles and deflates, it was a Lazio that was both enveloping and vertical, furious and furious with every ball. And indeed, the recapture took place high, very high, always in the black and white half of the field.

The two central Casale-Romagnoli (among Lazio’s great secrets, the best defense in Serie A) pre-emptively covered a clumsy Vlahovic (another indecipherable performance) and Di Maria – the best in terms of distance at Juventus – when he was not always able to find the clean exits to the outside and the daring filtrations to the inside at the right times and ways. In the meantime, Lazio began to create: First Immobile with a valuable volley from the right (Szczesny carefully), then Milinkovic with a serpentine in the middle of three black and white shirts (Bremer decisively the most beautiful). But Lazio grew and finally unlocked the game thanks to a goal from Milinkovic-Savic who played skillfully with the small hand right on the very light Alex Sandro, who might still be thinking of the carnival in Rio.

Convinced they had been wronged, Juventus poured into the Biancoceleste half with a hundredfold fury and scored the goal from a corner in the first real lunge of their game. To score that crazy horse currently the best midfielder in Serie A in terms of temperament and quality. This ended the first half of the 1990s. Lazio felt they missed a great opportunity, Juventus knew they had to approach the field differently in the second half to finish the game.

But when the anger condenses and the studs sink on the green grass, Poetry needs its own space.

Then, at the end of a stunning Lazio move in full Sarrista style, rather than treading water all alone in the penalty area, Luis Alberto decided to make history by giving the necessary Zaccagni, invisible from his back-to-back perspective . a ball of gold with a Dionysian heel strike. “If he hadn’t tagged him, I would have killed him”, the Spaniard told Sky Sports after the game. Luis Alberto, who was already strong before, has become an exceptional player at Sarri: good in defence, determined in tackles and decisive always in the offensive phase – where he adds to an innate ease a concreteness he may not have known he possessed.

From then on, Eupalla would do anything to prevent Juventus from scoring. But the Old Lady would have done little, very little, to contradict the fate of things. What he said today, as he had for some time ‘lazio’. Sarri’s team has conquered its demons: that is, it has won three straight games in all competitions for the first time since the Tuscan coach coached it. That brings them six wins (Salernitana, Sampdoria, Napoli, Roma and Juventus) in the last seven (the only draw in Bologna, against one of the fittest sides in the league). Second place, received with merit, +5 from third and +7 from fifth (formerly Simone Inzaghis Inter). Something clicked in the minds of the guys from Sarri: the famous germ Talked about after the disastrous defeat by Midtjylland, the age-old problem of ‘mental repression’ has become an incentive to improve game after game. The proof always comes (Spezia): but meanwhile the field speaks with unambiguous clarity.