Southampton 1-1 Lazio (Friendly)
The UK is rioting, as the nation prepares for immigration protest and counter protest this cloudy summers evening, I'm off to Southampton to hopefully get away from all the trouble, as the Saints face the Sinners, Lazio have had their own troubles with the 'far right' in recent memory, these days their 'lefty' immigration policy includes players from South America, Africa, Eastern Europe and more.
Southampton, promoted back to the Premier League after a season's absence, after beating Leeds United in the playoff final two months ago, are a team known under Russell Martin for their positive style of football, my own memories of 'Saints' peak was with Danny Wallace, Alan Shearer and the GOAT that is Matt Le Tissier who was an absolutely wonderful footballer in his day, more recently the side have bolstered with the likes of Ben Brereton-Diaz who's a Stoke born Chilean international, Yukinari Sugawara, a Japanese full back who's spent the last five years at AZ in Holland, some football league defenders in Ronnie Edwards, Nathan Wood, Charlie Taylor, and a familiar face in club legend Adam Lallana who makes a long awaited return to St Marys after some years away at Liverpool and most recently Brighton.
Lazio were one of those names from nineties football Italia you just loved to love. Gazza, Mancini, Beppe Signori, they won the league under Sven Goran Eriksson at the turn of the century with a strike trio of Alen Boksik, Marcelo Salas and Simone Inzaghi, they have since faltered too often in Serie A, peaking in 2022/23 with a long distant second place finish behind Napoli, last season they finished seventh and now have sixty year old managerial journeyman Marco Baroni who took charge this summer.
I'm off early for this one as it's a three hour trip down south. Out the door for early afternoon I'm down the M1, crossing the A34 past Silverstone and Brackley, a quick stop off at Cherwell Valley on the M40 before re-joining the A34 through Oxford and Winchester where I hop onto the M3.
Southampton is a lovely city, I stayed here many years ago when I was a ceiling fixer, doing up a new M&S at the West Quay shopping centre, often frequenting a Yates Wine Lodge on the High Street. My most recent trip was to watch England play Kosovo in an entertaining game that ended 5-3 in 2019. Jason Sancho scoring a couple of goals that day.
The Venue
I'm early so park up north of the stadium at an industrial estate near Shamrock Quay. It's a lovely walk around the quiet marina where there's boats and fishing units on the front of the River Itchen, a Bistro bar looks inviting with its Peroni umbrellas and outdoor seating. No beers today if I'm driving home at midnight.
My walk down the Belvidere Road is no more than ten minutes straight, the stadium appearing opposite a concrete yard with its white modern cantilevered roof, it looks quaint and compact from the outside, not imposing, like it's been here all the while, the St Mary's Stadium remember a replacement for the old Dell on Archers Lane, when it was built across city in 2001.
Through the turnstiles with my phone app, I'm in the left corner of the Itchen Stand where there's plenty of time for a chicken Balti pie and cuppa, it's spacious under the concourse and far from busy an hour before kick off, after a quick bite I walk up to my seat level with the corner flag, row Z. Or MM as Southampton like to call it, the only seats above mine are those that wrap around from the clubs private executive boxes where one or two non participating players, and their families are sat.
The Game
Lazio are in yellow, they have around 50 fans in attendance, Southampton in Palermo pink, have filled the stand I'm in, and behind the goal to my right, but the rest of the stadium is empty, plenty of red seats on show tonight.
The home side enjoy much of the early play, their style is very possession based and starts from the back, Argentine midfielder Carlos 'Charly' Alcaraz is positive, progressive and runs forward with the ball, he plays a pass to new signing Brereton-Diaz who with his long locks takes a touch from the left flank, cuts inside and curls home a beauty with his right foot from outside the box.
Lazio haven't started but former Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi is certainly starting to have a niggle in midfield, the yellows seem to know the dark arts, they kick, flick, wrestle, hold and pull to stop any Saints attack, often before arguing about it with the officials.
The referees whistle is seemingly on repeat, going off every minute the game can't flow much, but Southampton do try, even if their wooden legged goalkeeper Alex McCarthy tries his best to disrupt their flow.
Everything is short and sharp and is out from the back, a lot of Southampton's football involves their goalkeeper playing short passes to his centre halves and full backs, problem is, he's know good at it.
I used to play Sunday football a few years back with a tall Scotch bloke we called 'Wooden leg John' he couldn't move his feet and often got into bother, I liken McCarthy to Scotch John, if Russell Martin wants to play this brand of passing football, I think he'll be needing to replace his goalkeeper soon.
Southampton have a couple of scares which start from McCarthy, too often playing themselves into trouble, before losing the ball on the edge of their area again, this time they give up possession and Taty Castellanos flicks up not once, but twice, before firing in a ridiculous overhead volley, a contender for Puskas and one of the best goals I've seen live. It was however all Southampton's doing.
The Score
That stunner levels things up at the break, there's been a couple of bookings and a few niggles but the game has been good, a contrast of styles with Southampton possession based and passing whilst Lazio are often prepared to upset the flow of the match and defend by 'taking one for the team'.
The Italians start the second half well as a shot crashes down off the bar from their blonde winger Isaksen before Taty tries a delicate chip to the same effect, he should have scored, the better side have now got a foothold and are starting to find some luck down the flanks as Italian international Zaccagni starts to threaten, but a flair up on the hour changes the dynamics of this match again, it's been bubbling all evening, by now a quartet of yellows have been dished out, before yet another foul on half way has Alcaraz come to blows with Italian International defender Romagnoli, punches are thrown as the two teams come together, Alcaraz has lost his head, he's ran off the pitch and kicked a water bottle, a full out riot sparked in the centre with seemingly no control for a good few minutes. The referee eventually calling back Alcaraz to the cheers of the fans, before sending him and Romagnoli off for fighting.
Unusually this seems to deflate the previous hour of niggles and naughtiness, the last half hour played in more typical friendly and cautious manner, a flurry of subs, a lot of nothing, now ten a side there's a couple more yellows to add, but both managers are probably relieved as the whistle is blown a few seconds after ninety, that they'll have no more suspension concerns.
The Stars
Despite his red card, I took a real shine to Saints Argentine midfielder Alcaraz, a proper progressive midfielder he's technical, feisty, obviously talented and he runs with the ball often choosing the forward pass.
For Saints I was impressed with two of their summer signings in young centre backs Ronnie Edwards and Nathan Wood. I was told about Edwards last season by an old boy Peterborough fan who predicted big things, he's composed, makes defending look easy and often did the simple things well. Wood, more gutsy and a sort of player willing to put his body on the line.
Other impressive efforts came from the busy but bushy haired midfielder Sekou Mara whilst Sam Amo-Ameyaw shown some speed down the right.
Whilst Lazio were largely second best, they probably had the better moments and in Taty Castellanos look to have a striker of cult hero status. He has a knack of scoring goals and has done so wherever he's been.
Wingers Zaccagni and Isaksen both added a direct dimension whilst their three man midfield of Guendouzi, Vecino and Cataldi is as combative as there is in football, defensively they have experience in Pellegrini, Casale, Romagnoli, Lazzari and they'll be hard to beat next season.
One player I did like the look of who came off the bench was French forward Loum Tchaouna, shown some neat touches, a stocky striker at twenty-years-old he's one to watch for the future.
The Verdict
I doubt Southampton will play any team quite so aggressive in the Premier League this season and I suspect they'll take some points particularly at home due to the way they play and because they have a few surprising players of talent, they'll need to sort out their goalkeeping issue however, if they are to play out from the back, perhaps Gavin Bazunu will get the nod over Alex McCarthy at the season start?
Lazio will be competitive there is no question, i'll be keen to catch their disciplinary count but they're a better side than just fouling opponents and taking yellow cards on the chin to stop opponents, they have some excellent forward players in front of a pretty solid and rigid back seven, probably only enough for a flirtation with Europa qualification, which would hopefully mean an improvement on last season's seventh place.
The Teams
Southampton: Alex McCarthy, James Bree, Ronnie Edwards (Jack Stephens 77), Nathan Wood, Ryan Manning (Tyler Dibbling 46), Charlie Taylor (Yukinari Sugawara 86), Shea Charles, Carlos Alcaraz, Sam Amo-Ameyaw (Will Smallbone 72), Sekou Mara (Joe Aribo 72), Ben Brereton-Diaz (Samuel Edozie 46).
Lazio: Ivan Provedal (Christos Mandas 46), Luca Pellegrini (Elseid Hysaj 86), Matias Vecino, Matteo Guendouzi (Gaetano Castrovilli 86), Mattia Zaccagni (Pedro 77), Taty Castellanos, Alessio Romagnoli, Nicolo Casale (Patric 86), Gustav Isaksen (Loum Thcaouna 72), Manuel Lazzari (Adam Marusic 82), Danilo Cataldi (Mario Gila 64).
7:30pm Kick Off. Wednesday 7th August 2024, St Mary's Stadium, Southampton (att 12,000).
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