Genoa v Lazio match preview

By: j | April 17th, 2009

Following last weeks 3-2 victory over Juventus, Genoa is in the drivers seat in their Champions League bid with a two-point lead over Fiorentina and only four behind third-place AC Milan. Of the teams in the mix for a spot in next years tournament, Genoa has likely the easiest remaining schedule as they face a number in relegation territory including Bologna, Chievo Verona,Torino and Lecce. With this in-mind, Saturdays visit of Stadio Luigi Ferraris by Lazio will put them well on the road to next years premier event.

Gian Piero Gasperini is dealing with a number of injury concerns and the lack of bench depth is wreaking havoc on the Rossoblu plans. Heading into the match both Diego Milito, Omar Milanetto, Alessio Scarpi and Matteo Paro are out but there is further question marks on the availability of Serbian international Boško Janković, Giandomenico Mesto, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Anthony Vanden Borre. This naturally throws lineup considerations into the wind with attacking trident most likely being in-from Raffaele Palladino paired up Giuseppe Sculli and Rubén Olivera, albeit the later Uruguayan dealing with a few modest injuries himself.

Lazio is brimming with confidence after dominating Roma 4-2 and know a victory could put them back into play for a Europa League spot. How much their Coppa Italia match against Juventus on Wednesday will impact their plans is unclear but they are without the services of Pasquale Foggia to injury, Cristian Brocchi and Francelino Matuzalem who are both in the sin-bin and a series of injury doubts including Goran Pandev, Cristian Ledesma, Stefano Mauri and David Roze