Points paramount for Zürich and Lazio
Monday, October 3, 2011
Article summary
Having taken just a point each from their opening two UEFA Europa League Group D fixtures, FC Zürich and S.S. Lazio will look to move up a gear on matchday three.
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Having taken just a point each from their opening two UEFA Europa League Group D fixtures, FC Zürich and S.S. Lazio will look to move up a gear on matchday three.
Previous meetings
• The clubs are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.
• Zürich's record in eight games against Italian sides reads W2 D2 L4 (W1 D2 L1 at home). They caused a major stir by winning 1-0 at AC Milan in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League group stage.
• Lazio's record in four matches against Swiss sides is W1 D2 L1 (W0 D1 L1 in Switzerland). This will be their first tie against Swiss opponents this century, their last match being against FC Lausanne-Sport in the first round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in October 1998.
Match background
• Zürich have gone four games without a European win, with a 2-2 draw at FC Vaslui on matchday two ending a three-game losing streak.
• Zürich have scored only twice (against R. Standard de Liège and Milan) in their last five European home games, which ended W1 D1 L3.
• Lazio have lost three of their last four European away games, with a 3-1 win at FK Rabotnicki in this season's UEFA Europa League play-offs breaking up that negative streak.
Team facts
• Zürich boast Italian talent in the form of goalkeeper Andrea Guatelli, who started his career as a trainee at hometown club Parma FC, and represented US Fiorenzuola 1922 on loan before moving to England with Portsmouth FC in 2004.
• Lazio's Bosnian left-back Senad Lulić played in Switzerland with AC Bellinzona, Grasshopper-Club and BSC Young Boys before moving to Rome this summer. His record in nine games against Zürich is W2 D3 L4.
• Zürich midfielder Ludovic Magnin and Lazio striker Miroslav Klose were team-mates at SV Werder Bremen in 2004/05.
• Zürich boss Urs Fischer joined the club as a youth player in the early 1970s, played for them as a defender in two spells (1984-87 and 1996-2003) and took charge of the club as coach in 2010, following a spell as assistant to Bernard Challandes in 2007/08.
• Once a midfield colleague of Fabio Capello's at SPAL 1907, Lazio boss Edoardo Reja has been coaching since 1979, but did not make his Serie A debut until 1998, and had to wait another decade to make his European debut with SSC Napoli.
