Another home game, another draw. First clean sheet of the season though and no late concession for a change.
It was good performance overall against a decent side, albeit one without ambition. Despite the multinational make up of the side Italian stereotypes were to the fore as Lazio mixed a packed defence with the occasional classy breakaway. The last twenty minutes was marred by constant tripping and diving as they away team risked nothing in search of a point. Their fans also conformed by diverting from regaling their team loudly if sporadically to treat Defoe to some very unpleasant and non-PC chanting when he was sent tumbling into the Western Union sign in front of them.
We looked good for the first half hour and were the better side. The game was technical rather than exciting as Lazio pressed high and we searched for space. We kept the ball well, were solid and confident with Dembele, Bale and Dempsey all prominent. Lennon, slightly bizarrely our skipper for the night, got into a number of great positions but failed to make the best use of them. Dempsey’s apparently wrongly disallowed goal would’ve given us a deserved lead.
After 30 minutes or so Lazio came back into it with Gonzalez smacking the bar with an opportunistic volley from the edge of the area. We had more of the ball but the Italians came to do a job and with the help of another disallowed effort, this time in the second half from Caulker, succeeded.
Lloris had little to do but still made a good impression. The murmers round the Paxton when he came out to catch a cross were of the “blimey! Are keepers allowed to do that?” variety
By MF
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