The name of Lazio's first opponent of the 2005-6 season was determined today when Finnish club Tampere United surprisingly held Charleroi to a 0-0 draw in Belgium and advanced by virtue of their 1-0 win last week. Previously, Tampere had defeated a team from the Faroe Islands in the first round. Tampere United (colors green/white/blue) qualified for the Intertoto by finishing 3rd in the Finnish Premier Division last year. The club was formed in 1998 by the merger of Tampere PV and FC Ilves. They've won one previous Finnish championship, in 2001. They lost in the first qualifying round of the following year's Champions League, 6-0 onn aggregate, to an Armenian club. This is their third straight participation in the Intertoto Cup. They lost in the first round in 2003 but advanced to the 3rd round last year after a fortuitous draw matched them with clubs from Luxembourg and Azerbaijan. They finally fell to a club from Serbia&Montenegro. In short, Lazio ought to win. Lazio hosts the first leg next weekend (I can't figure out if it's on Saturday or Sunday). Highly doubtful that there will be any TV coverage in the US.
The draw for the Intertoto semifinals and finals was held today. If Lazio gets past Tampere, their next opponent would be the winner of Swiss club BSC Young Boys and Olympique Marseilles. The winner there goes to one of the finals against the winner of a likely semifinal between Deportivo La Coruna and Newcastle United. Now that's going to be tough (although at least they avoided Egaleo . Full draw: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/news/Kind=1/newsId=315923.html
well this is no joke now, unless they can pull some transfer magic than the like of OM, Newcastle or Deportivo will be out of our class... although I think even an early exit will make for a nice prep to the serie a season and it appears team chemistry will be much improved with this early training camp...
Oh, I dunno - if some Finnish club I've never heard of can beat Charleroi, surely a moment of magic from Pandev gives us a chance.
On the flip side of that .... maybe Lazio should worry about the Finns!!! I noticed Rossi is already making the usual Italian excuses about how the Finnish side is already well into their season, in playing shape, etc etc.
and several players have knocks and will likely sit out the first match this weekend, including Baronio and Peruzzi. The question is do they field Sereni, Cesar and more importantly Oddo....euro cup-tying them would lessen their sale value. Even Liverani who is wanted by Udinese as Pizarro leaves...
so one fan site has this as the lineup for sunday, which will be behind closed doors due to the last fan incident in the uefa cup. GK: Sereni Belleri, Sannibale, Cribari, Zauri Manfredini, Liverani, Firmani, Cesar Rocchi, Di Canio http://www.sslazio2000.net/ From this I'd guess Cesar wont be sold, in fact he may be the next captain. We need him to be the player he was under mancini. Firmani is 3rd choice at the DMid spot but Baronio and Dabo are out. The right side is awfully weak with Belleri and Manfredini...If Oddo's about to be sold they had better get real right-sided players. Sannibale is 19 and the top defender off a decent primavera team last yr.
yes apparently, I will be happy to be wrong about him as our right back. 3-0 di canio scores early in the 2nd half. One more truly makes the second leg meaningless.
kataweb rates the players: Lazio: Sereni 6.5, Belleri 6.5, Cribari 6 (35' st Sannibale sv), Lequi 6, Zauri 6, Manfredini 6, Firmani 6.5, Liverani 6.5, Cesar 6.5, Di Canio 6 (24' st Muzzi sv), Rocchi 6.5 (40'st Pandev). (Peruzzi, De Silvestri, Ciani, Melara). All Delio Rossi Seems Belleri did very well at right back, coming up and crossing for one goal while scoring another off a free kick. game story in italian: http://www.kataweb.it/sport/sportdetail.jsp?extra=true&idCategory=5687&idContent=1032230&serie=
Here are the 20 players who travelled to Finland for Saturday's return leg: Peruzzi, Sereni, Angeletti, Belleri, Cribari, De Silvestri, Lequi, Sannibale, Zaccardi, Zauri, Ciani, Cesar, Liverani, Manfredini, Melara, Firmani, Di Canio, Muzzi, Pandev, Rocchi The game kicks off at noon eastern US time although I know of no way to follow it live. uefa.com might have the goals as they happen. Meanwhile, not to jinx anything by looking ahead, but Marseille hosts Young Boys Berne holding a 3-2 lead. The winners of the two ties will meet each other in the semifinals July 27 and Aug 3.
It doesn't matter what happens, an Italian side should never worry about a Finnish side and Lazio's 3-0 win just showed that. Can the Finns win 4-0 or force a shootout? It's very doubtful.
too bad simone inzaghi is hurt, otherwise he can drop 4 goals on OM again like the last time we met in europe shame there wasnt a week in between intertoto matches with time to finish transfer deals and integrate new talent. Going to be tough to beat them having to use jokers like Manfredini. Hopefully a couple injured players are cleared to play.