Italian Serie A - Lazio outplayed Palermo defeating them 1-0

The Biancocelesti and two times champion of Italian Serie A, Lazio, found their winning path by beating Palermo on the road at the Stadio Olimpico last Saturday with a score of 1-0. With this win Lazio finished their losing streak as the Young Eagles didn't managed to win since November 9th and only captured two points in five games. But with this accomplishment as visitors, their coach Delio Rossi expressed that his team is improving with the time and is getting good team's chemistry and decision making. However, Lazio needs to keep working hard to get better for the next matches after the winter break.

Since the beginning of the game, both teams had few options to open the score due to the fact that the two of them were very meticulous and cautions in defence. The teams came to this match with only one point difference in the standings, having Palermo 23 points and Lazio 24, therefore both clubs were looking for a positive result.

At minute 23, a hazardous shot from the striker Goran Pandev scared the defence of Lazio. After scoreless options in the first half, the second half gave a more interesting look to the match when Tommaso Rocci replaced the Argentinean Mauro Zarate at minute 58 and just 8 minutes later, at minute 66, Rocci took advantage of a low pass from Meghni and open the score for Lazio. Palermo tried to come back a minute after Lazio's goal when Mark Bresciano leap on a loose ball but failed to score. However, the chances of Palermo to equalize the game became weak when the defender Federico Balzaretti got a second yellow card and was kicked out of the game with only 18 minutes left. Just five minutes later, things got worse for Palermo when Fabrizio Miccoli got injured. With all these lows on Palermo, the victory of Lazio became obvious at the end.

With this conquest, the Biacocelesti climbed to the 7th place of the standings getting a total of 27 points and ending their bad run. Genoa and Napoli are ahead of Lazio by two and three points respectively. For its part, the Rosaneros dropped to 11th place of the table with 23 points and tied with Roma in points. Palermo's President Maurizio Zamparini was really disappointed with this result and is expecting more from his team after the break. On the other hand, Lazio's coach Delio Rossi expressed his satisfaction with his team victory.

"We did very well and managed to come out on top in the end," Coach Rossi stated, "Palermo created some problems for us, but we never panicked. It's a deserved win and I feel the game turned when (Ousmane) Dabo came in, he was crucial and things went much better with him on the pitch," stated Lazio's Coach.

The next matches of Lazio will be against Reggina on January 11th, 2009, followed by their confrontation with the second place of the standings Juventus on January 18th. For its part, Palermo will face Atalanta and Sampdoria on the same dates.