There is no shortage of disappointment at Lazio, but there are few regrets. The dream of playing in the Champions League ends on the Bayer Leverkusen field, which last night overwhelmed the biancocelesti 3-0 (Calhanoglu, Mehmedi and Bellarabi with the net) overturning the result at the Olimpico (1-0, goal by Keita) and securing a place in the group stage of the big-eared cup. A place that, unfortunately for Lotito, was also worth 30 million euros.
This Lazio team, which is now relegated to the Europa League, only has to complain about too many injuries, which deprived it in the most important moment of expert champions like Biglia and Klose, of a point of reference in attack like Djordjevic and of a champion among the posts like Marchetti. And yet, even with the full squad, yesterday's mission would have remained almost impossible, given the superiority shown by the Germans not only on a technical, athletic and game organization level, but also on that of motivation, competitive wickedness, desire to do it.
Even without counting the defensive blunders of De Vrij and Mauricio (who completes the disaster by getting expelled), the Biancocelesti players appeared soft, disheartened, intimidated by the importance of the challenge and by the strength of the opponent. Defeat was perhaps inevitable, but at least a strong-willed attitude was expected from Lazio.
Instead, the team took the field shy, giving up, unable to win a single tackle or a single speed challenge during the entire match. Until the final minutes, when the Germans' third goal arrived, only one goal would have been enough to go through, but the blue-and-whites never managed to strike up an attacking action, finishing second on every ball.
Stefano Pioli, despite his indisputable professionalism and preparation, yesterday confirmed an important gap, one of those which cannot be filled with a course in Coverciano: the lack of the charisma and personality necessary to convey to the team the confidence it takes to face such important games.
