Can Lazio trouble Juventus in the title race?

Lazio are 4 points behind Juventus in the race for the Serie A title. They pulled off a dramatic late victory at the weekend to beat Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico to come from a goal behind and to win the game 2-1 thanks to goals from Ciro Immobile and Luis Alberto. They are still 10 games to go in Serie A so with the gap only at 4 points it is still all to play for.

Winning the Scudetto for Lazio would be an unbelievable achievement.  They have only won two Serie A title in their history, the last coming in the 1999-2000 season. Domestically, there success has traditionally come in their cup competition, the Coppa Italia, a competition they have won 7 times. This season has seen Lazio improve on last season’s 8^th place, and they already have 6 more points than they achieved last season and that is with 10 games still to play of the current campaign. Under Simone Inzaghi this season, they have managed to score 64 goals with only Atalanta scoring more this season than Lazio, which means on average Lazio are scoring 2.29 goals per game in the league, they have also only conceded 27 goals in their 28 games, with Juventus the only team to concede fewer. All this has helped Lazio to win 20 games in the league and only losing 3, the same number of losses as Juventus and Inter. For Lazio, all them losses have come away from the Stadio Olimpico, as they have remained unbeaten at home this season.

The success of several key players has helped them into second place, and one of them is current Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile, who has scored 28 goals this season, 5 more than that of Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo. Another key component of this title challenging side is that of 27-year-old Spanish midfielder Luis Alberto, who is the man with the most assists in Serie A this season with 13, one more than Atalanta’s Alejandro Gomez. Furthermore, a league title will put Simone Inzaghi in the conversation of being one of Lazio’s best managers in their history. He has already got the second most trophies of any Lazio managers, with 2 Supercopa wins and one Coppa Italia win. This leaves only Sven-Gӧran Eriksson as the only manager to win more trophies, with 7 trophies for the club, that did include a Serie A trophy.

The last 10 games are going to be some of the biggest in Lazio’s history albeit without fans in attendance. However, those fans will be desperate to see their team obtain Serie A glory and maybe a lot of fans around Italy will want to see Juventus’ grip on the Scudetto coming to an end after 8 successive title wins. The run-in for Lazio, sees them face some difficult tests, including that of Juventus, which is bound to be a crucial clash. 5 of their last 10 games will be up against teams currently in the top half of the league with notable games at Juventus, Verona, and Napoli to come. Furthermore, there are also tough games against at home against AC Milan and Cagliari. The run-in will see a lots of games played in quick succession, due to the break because of the pandemic, it has led to the Serie A fixtures to be scheduled on for weekend and midweek games to take place all through July. For Lazio, this may be an issue as they do not have the squad depth that Juventus have, so keeping their key players fresh and fit over the next month or so may prove to be difficult.