A goal in each half saw Lazio defeat Hamburger SV 0-2 on a warm Friday evening in the Lohmühle stadium in the German city of Lübeck.
New signing Filip Djordjevic got the Biancoceleste off to fine start after five minutes, finishing coolly. 18 year old Spanish forward Mamadou Tounkara sealed Lazio’s victory seven minutes from time after some great work Senad Lulic.
The first goal of the match came about as a result of a well struck free kick from Lazio captain Stefano Mauri from the left hand side. A mistake from Hamburg defender Johan Djourou allowed the ball to come to the Dlordjevic who only needed two touches to score past goalkeeper Rene Adler.
Lazio looked very dangerous from set-pieces and could have scored a second on 12 minutes. A corner from the right was floated in by Christian Ledesma; Djordjevic connected with the ball but failed to direct his header towards the goal. It eventually fell to Stefan Radu whose left footed shot thundered off the post.
A hard challenge from former Napoli man Valon Behrami left Djordjevic in pain for a few minutes. Danilo Cataldi tested Adler from the resulting free kick.
Hamburg’s only meaningful chance came after a cross from the right which Artjoms Rud?evs headed just wide.
Stefano Pioli decided to replace Djordjevic and Abdoulay Konko at half time with Mamadou Tounkara and Luis Cavanda respectively.
The first bit of action after the break came on 51 minutes nobody was able to get onto a good cross in from Mauri.
Hamburg struggled to create anything for large parts of the match and many of Die Rothosen players must have felt that this wouldn’t their day. Especially when Rafael Van Der Vaart corner was picked off by goalkeeper Etrit Berisha.
However, Hamburg slowly got into the game as the half went on. Ledesma was booked for pulling Rudnevs who was just about to break through on goal
On 64 minutes Felipe Anderson broke from midfield down the left wing and on arriving in the box cut inside and had a shot on goal that just went over the crossbar.
Stefano Pioli decided to make further changes to the team with Alvaro Gonzalez, Marco Parolo, Lulic and Antonio Candreva coming on for Cataldi, Mauri, Anderson and Keita Diao.
Die Rothosen’s best chance of the entire game came on 68 minutes. Some great work from Ivo Ilicevic allowed him to lose Cavanda on the left hand side and dash into the box. The winger’s shot was blocked by the Lazio defence and the ball fell to an imbalanced Behrami whose subsequent shot went wide of the target.
Lazio’s final change came as Michael Ciani was replaced with Diego Novaretti.
Lazio’s win was clinched on 83 minutes. Gonzalez and Lulic combined well to send the latter through into the box leaving the German defence. Some clever dribbling from the Bosnian allowed him to tee up Tounkara who tapped the ball in from six yards.
