Third defeat of the season, the most painful

"di Andrea Rosselli

"It's really hard to comment a 0-4 home defeat, and it's even harder to do that after watching how this defeat came: briefly, Toro played a good first half and collapsed in the second, and this makes more and more unacceptable the behavior of the team, who were soundly booed by the fans after the final whistle.

"Actually, in a first half without a real scoring chance by either side, Torino were clearly the better team. The Granata played with a very good personality, showing intensity and determination, putting a big pressure on their opponents and attacking with plenty of players, including Comotto and Balestri: however Zaccheroni's men were unable to create any kind of opportunity, partly because of the team's unsolved offensive problems and partly because of Lazio's superb defensive effort. No dangers for Christian Abbiati either, as Lazio only managed to build a couple of harmless counterattacks.

"In the second half the Granata were expected to build on what they did in the first, and maybe improve something on the offensive side, but soon the situation became totally different. After only three minutes the guests took the lead with Rocchi, who exploited a nice pass by Mudingayi and netted with a short-range shot that Abbiati was unable to retain, two minutes later Stendardo hit the bar with a header and after a few seconds Oddo make it 2-0 thanks to a clear penalty kick, as Rocchi was taken down inside the box by Di Loreto.

"Toro's reaction was furious but confused, Lazio didn't have many problem in containing it and even managed to score two more goals: in the 67th minute Oddo made it 3-0 with a shot deflected by Di Loreto, while five minutes later Mauri netted the 4th goal with an easy tap-in following a save by Abbiati on Rocchi.

"At the end of the match, chairman Urbano Cairo expressed his disappointment but also his unchanged confidence in Alberto Zaccheroni: "We played a good first half, but in the second we had a kind of black-out. We must keep on working, the break comes at the right time: my confidence in Zaccheroni is rock solid, I'm sure he'll find a way to get out of this crisis".