A game in the middle of the storm. There is at the Olimpico Lazio-Juve but we only talk about referees. The chaos related to Guida and his race direction still attracts attention and yesterday, as expected, the decisions of the sports judge arrived. Sting "had" to be and sting it was, even if someone even invoked greater severity. The bulletin is soon done: 2 days of stop ad Antonio Conte (“for having confronted the Clerk of the Course and an additional Referee with an intimidating attitude, contesting their work with abusive expressions, which he repeated shortly after in the locker room”), 2 to Leonardo Bonucci (“for having made abusive expressions towards the Fourth Official and of the additional referee”), 1 to Giorgio Chiellini (“for blatantly contesting the work of the match officials”). TO Joseph Marotta it went worse: inhibition until February 18 "for having, at the end of the match contested the work of the match officials, addressing the referee, with an intimidating attitude, abusive expressions". To this we must add the warning from Vucinic who, being cautioned, will miss the match in Verona and the fine of 50 euros imposed on the Juventus fans, guilty of having spat on the match officials. A black page for our football regardless of the work of Guida, who proved completely inadequate to direct a cartel challenge. Now the weather is incandescent and the calendar certainly doesn't help.
In fact, this evening we return to the field with a big match for strong hearts: Lazio-Juve will decide the first semi-finalist of the Italian Cup. It starts from 1-1 in the first leg, which forces the black and whites to win, or at least to draw with at least 2 goals. The eve of Juventus' home was characterized by silence, even if disbelief filtered through the club for the disqualifications, especially for Marotta's. In any case Andrea Agnelli, who was present in Vinovo yesterday, did not want to release official comments and preferred to speak to the team without touching the referees' speech.
Press conference instead for Lazio, albeit atypical. Instead of Petkovic it was Mauri who spoke, and references to the controversies of these days are not lacking. “We hope to play it without referee conditioning – declared the Biancoceleste midfielder. – We have to play the game openly, without thinking about the result of the first leg. We want the final, if it were even a derby it would be a special emotion for the whole city. This is a crucial semi-final for the season."
Both coaches want to play with typical formations, even if Petkovic has been pre-tactical by not issuing the squad list. Thanks to the championship disqualifications, Conte will play against the very titular players: Pirlo will return to the control room, alongside him the runoff between Marchisio and Pogba. On the left Peluso is favored over De Ceglie, while Vucinic and Giovinco should play in attack. In the meantime Nicolas Anelka has passed all the medical tests and has already made himself available to Antonio Conte. The Frenchman won't be in Rome this evening, but he could be in Verona on Sunday with his new companions.
Sigh of relief on the Llorente front: the Basque, injured last Saturday in training, only suffered a small bruise on his knee, resulting in a 15-20 day stop. The bianconeri then formalized a signing for the future: it is José Francisco Cevallos, midfielder born in 95 taken from the Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito. The boy, despite his young age, is already part of the Ecuador Under 20 national team.
