Lazio stopped by Ludogorets at Olimpico. No fifth Europa League win

Rome 28 November 2024 - Right approach, opponent not underestimated: but it was not enough to make the difference. The Lazio hits the wall of the Ludogorets and does not go beyond the 0-0 at the Olimpico against the Bulgarians. Almost total domination by the Biancocelesti who only lack the goal to make the difference and obtain the fifth consecutive victory in Europa LeagueFor the guests, however, it is the second point in this competition.

First half

For the European challenge Baroni largely confirms the hypotheses of the eve with a large turnover. In front of mandas, the four-line sees Marusic to the right, Pellegrini on the left, with the central pair Leg e Patric. Guendouzi e Vecino they are the medians, while Day acts in three-quarters, together with Tchaouna e Pedro, behind noslinOn the other side the Bulgarians see bonmann between the posts, protected by a line of four with Witty, Kurtulus, Almeida e Its. In the median Duarte, Neressi e Bigger make up the midfield, the former Serie A Chochev acts behind the back of Marcus e Cross.

The departure of Lazio is simply perfect. The Biancocelesti take possession of the ball from the very first touches and constantly dribble in the Bulgarians' half of the pitch. The approach is perfect, they don't want to leave anything to chance and the Biancoverdi rarely leave their half of the pitch. In the first ten minutes the Ludogorets comes out only once with the ball in his own half of the field. The match seems to have the contours of a wait for the biancoceleste advantage, but the Capitoline team cannot afford to lower the tension, because when the guests accelerate they know how to do harm.

In this way the game takes on little rhythm, because at the Lazio lacks a pinch of intensity and precision to create important goal-scoring opportunities. At the same time, however, the Biancocelesti's possession is of too high a quality for the guests to have any counter-attack opportunities. The match continues along these lines without any particular stimuli, the only thing to note is the yellow card for Pellegrini in the 29th minute for having stopped the guests' counterattack with a hold. 

The hosts try to raise the engine speed at the end of the first half. The territorial domination gradually begins to translate into offensive opportunities, with more and more balls played in the opponent's area. Witty in the 36th minute he shows the yellow card to stop the restart of Guendouzi, but 2 minutes later it is Day to come close to taking the lead. The Senegalese in fact receives a good suggestion from a teammate in the area and shoots at goal, finding a careful response from bonmann. A few minutes later instead it is noslin failing to kick the cross into the penalty area from the right, with the goalkeeper coming out Ludogorets good at coming out to take away space from the Dutchman Lazio, who crashes right into his rival's save. He is cautioned at the end of the half Tchaouna for a late tackle on an opponent and it is the last noteworthy situation of the first half, where the hosts dominated the Bulgarians, but the score is still 0-0.

Second half

The match resumes with three changes in favor of Lazio, with the entrances of Isaksen, Lazzari and Castellanos, who replace an off-form Tchaouna, the cautioned Pellegrini and finally Dia. Baroni wants more incisiveness compared to the first half and the Argentine tries right from the start to guarantee depth with his cuts, but it is not enough. Ludogorets' set-up remains purely defensive: there is the awareness that in the event of a Biancoceleste advantage there would be very little hope of getting points at the Olimpico. 

Lazio presses on the accelerator, but continues to lack precision in the final meters and much of the possession they build often ends up wasted with lazy passes that cause them to lose all the good work done up to that point. In the 60th minute, Pedro tries with an attempt on a corner kick, but his attempt does not surprise Bonmann who manages to save the Spaniard's attempt. Baroni is not at all satisfied and also throws Rovella into the fray, who replaces an impalpable Vecino. The entrance of the Italian midfielder seems to give new rhythm to the Lazio midfield from his very first touches. Jovicevic reads the moment of difficulty of his boys and also makes the first change: Duah comes in for Cruz.

In the 70th minute, perhaps the biggest 'sliding door' of the match arrives. Isasken, one of the most active since his entry, anticipates his defender, but ends up falling in contact with the defender. The referee lets play, opening up a counterattack by Ludogorets, stopped with a foul by Rovella. The Balkan referee is called to the VAR and although Isaksen receives the hip tap and is the one to get to the ball first, Strukan does not go back on his steps and does not award the penalty for Lazio. Baroni on the bench gets furious with good reason, while the referee is booed by the Lazio fans. Patric is also booked for his protests, as is Rovella for the foul that stops the guests' action. 

The final part of the match is incandescent, the fans try to give the extra push that Lazio seems to need. Zaccagni comes off the bench for Pedro, while among the Bulgarians it's time for Camara and Yordanov to replace Marcus and Gropper, just as a few moments later Piotrowski comes on for Chochev. Lazio is literally all poured into Ludogorets' half of the pitch, but they don't find the chance to unlock the match. Yellow cards rain down for the increase in physicality: first Naressi, then Isaksen end up in the referee's notebook of the bad guys. The Capitoline team also tries from distance and in the 85th minute they almost succeed, but Guendouzi's powerful right-footed shot only hits the top of the crossbar. The Frenchman's chance is the clearest of the final part, where the Biancocelesti enter the opponent's area with all their players, but without managing to find the way to the net. Surprisingly, the match at the Olimpico ended 0-0, ending Lazio's winning streak in the Europa League at four, the second point of the competition for the Bulgarians.