The Bianconeri should be kicking themselves for throwing away two points against Lazio, as the game was properly conducted for about 75 minutes. However, they wasted multiple opportunities to double the lead and sat back too much down the stretch and in the end a series of unfortunate mistakes led to an all too familiar late-game collapse.
Leonardo Bonucci: he and Merih Demiral had an almost perfect performance with multiple great reads and often forestalling the opponents. Bonucci blocked a point-blank attempt two minute the game and another one from inside the box later on. Unfortunately the both played a part in the Felipe Caicedo goal, as Bonucci guarded him too loosely and Demiral was not aggressive enough on Joaquin Correa, who had already dribbled past a host of teammates. Soft tackles have been a recurrent thing in the early season. Danilo was not as noticeable as in other matches but was decent. Gianluca Frabotta was a surprise starter and did not limit himself to just the compitino since he was a legit factor when scampering down the left flank.
Juan Cuadrado (1 point): not a great outing overall for the Colombian winger, who started with an awful defensive gamble that did not pay off and ended with a lackadaisical pressure on the direct adversary on the opposing goal. However, in the middle he pulled one out of the hat on the Cristiano Ronaldo goal, ripping off a tremendous run where he glided past few enemies with ease and finishing off the action with a perfect square ball. Pretty strong performances for Adrien Rabiot, who stood out in the defensive phase and quickly switched field position with some powerful sprints, Rodrigo Bentancur was serviceable but not imposing.
Cristiano Ronaldo (4 points): he turned in one of his most inspired performance of the season as he nudged it home on Cuadrado’s feed for an easy one and could have added at least another goal to his day thanks to a pair of strikers from dangerous spots. One was even too accurate as he rattled the woodwork. He was a simply a constant menace since the Biancocelesti did not defend well at all, and the Old Lady’s front-line should have taken advantage of that. With Ronaldo being such a catalyst, Alvaro Morata was the recipient of limited chances, but he still fared well with his tireless, but also qualitative, work on the other area of the games. Paulo Dybala came off the bench with a terrible attitude, had troubles controlling the ball and gave away a costly one to set up the final Lazio blitz, as he could have just dribbled the clock out by just putting a little more care and effort into it.
Are you a Serie A expert? Can you defeat the top Serie A Fantasy Managers? If you think so, play fantasyseriea.com now!
To leave a comment, you must be logged into www.eurofantasyleague.com