Lazio – Fiorentina 4-0, March 9

The Monday evening matchup between Lazio and Fiorentina ended disastrously for Florence’s La Viola. Fiorentina was searching for a victory that would have placed them above Lazio in the Serie A standings in a match that ended in a 4-0 loss for Fiorentina. The loss came as a surprise to Fiorentina fans who had recently become accustomed to victory due to the recent acquisition of Mohamed Salah. However, with Mario Gomez out-of-play momentarily while recovering from an ankle injury suffered while defeating Juventus in a Coppa Italia match, the young Salah struggled to assert his dominance over the experienced Lazio players.

In their first loss since January 6 against Parma, Fiorentina had conceded the first goal to Lazio within six minutes. The rest of the match was a struggle for La Viola, who strived, but failed, to keep control of the ball and attack. Within minutes of the open, Lazio was on a strong offense looking to score a quick goal, and after their first attempt failed, a Lazio player launched the ball high into the air. This was when Lazio’s Lucas Biglia, running towards the goal from the edge of the goal area, caught and kicked the ball fiercely passed the Fiorentina goalie. The remainder of the first half would not see any additional goals from either side, but things got worse as the Lazio offense became charged and wore out the Fiorentina defense in the second half.

During the first 15 minutes of the second half, Fiorentina’s Tomovic slide tackled Lazio’s Antonio Candreva within the goalie area and given Candreva a free penalty kick. Candreva capitalized on this golden opportunity to solidify the Lazio lead at 2-0. Things continued to get only worse for Fiorentina when ten minutes later Miroslav Klose charged, dove and headbutted a rebound from the Fiorentina goalie into the back of the net. Just ten minutes after this disaster, Klose found himself with another opportunity when the ball rebounded off the hands of the Fiorentina goalie. Klose’s first attempt was also not caught by the struggling Fiorentina goalie, but his second attempt was effortlessly kicked in the net. Within 20 minutes, Lazio had turned a 1-0 lead into an insurmountable 4-0 disaster for La Viola.

The match ended in a defeat, but Fiorentina will return again to try to climb the Serie A standings against Milan on Monday, March 16, at 7 pm. Monday night’s disaster was a slight hiccup in what has been an excellent 2015 for Fiorentina, and has only continued to improve with and the possibility of striker Giuseppe Rossi returning from the injury list increases. More football excitement can be seen during the Europa League matchup of Fiorentina versus Roma this Thrusday, March 12, at 9:05 pm.  (jacob mccarthy)