It was brilliant, breathtaking, brutal.
The first 20 minutes of Lazio’s thumping win over Sampdoria on Saturday may well have sent a cold shiver down the spine of Paulo Fonseca, whose Roma side are next on the fixture calendar of Italy’s hottest team.
Claudio Ranieri has done a good job of tightening up the Sampdoria defence since replacing Eusebio Di Francesco last year, and his side travelled to the capital with a respectable four goals conceded in their last four games, two of those coming against Juventus.
There’s no doubt that Simone Inzaghi instructed his side to start quickly, to try and break down their opponent as soon as possible to avoid a frustrating exercise in defensive lock-picking. But there’s starting quickly, and then there’s this.
Lazio owner Claudio Lotito received no end of sly digs earlier this season for claiming that he had handed Inzaghi a “Ferrari” of a squad.
But it didn’t seem so hyperbolic on Saturday, as the Aquile’s well-oiled machine flew out of the blocks at 200 miles per hour to light up a grey, wet January afternoon.
It’s becoming harder and harder to find new ways of describing the form of Ciro Immobile. His strength and balance in setting up Felipe Caicedo’s opener was outstanding, and then he went and scored a hat-trick.
Immobile is on 23 goals for the season now. After 19 games, that is 11 more than SPAL, six more than Udinese and Brescia, five more than AC Milan, four more than Samp, three more than Genoa and two more than Verona.
Antonio Angelillo, with 24, is the only player to have scored more goals after the first 19 rounds of a Serie A season – and that was back in 1958/59. Only Lionel Messi has produced more than one goal in a game more often than Immobile over the last three seasons in Europe’s top five leagues.
But Lazio’s form is about much more than just Immobile. The Olimpico has become one of the most daunting grounds to travel to for away sides in Serie A this season.
Ahead of Juventus’ clash with Parma, Lazio were top of the home form ‘league table’ with eight wins and two draws in 10 games giving them 26 points, one more than Juve, while Inter and Roma are five and nine points worse off respectively.
Inzaghi’s team have scored in each of their last 24 home games, with 57 goals flying into the opposition net in that time. This season, they are averaging three goals a game in Rome.
Nobody has beaten them at home in Serie A this season, and it’s getting to the point where you wonder if anyone will.
This is a team brimming with confidence and belief, a team that flourishes when its tail is up. And when they have the backing of their noisy faithful, that belief steps up to a new level.
The good news for Inzaghi and his men is that between now and 23 February they need only leave the capital once: for a trip to Parma on 9 February.
Lazio have three home games lined up in that time, against SPAL, Verona and Inter, while next weekend they are the away team in name only for the Rome Derby.
Considering the way they are making that home advantage count lately, there is no reason to fear that the wins will stop coming or the goals stop flowing any time soon.
Sluggish Samp increase Ranieri’s appetite
5-1 winners one weekend, 5-1 losers the next. To say it’s been a mixed week for Claudio Ranieri’s Sampdoria side would be an understatement.
Just when it seemed they may have turned a corner, holding Milan to a 0-0 draw before hammering Brescia, they were steamrollered by the Lazio bulldozer and offered little resistance.
Ranieri’s response to his team’s performance? “I’ll put some oil, salt and pepper on this evening and eat them alive.”
Hopefully that seems an extreme measure to most of our readers. But you can understand the coach’s frustration at his side’s capitulation after conceding two penalties, having a man sent off and generally failing to show any of the resilience or organisation that he would hope to see from his players at such a difficult venue.
