Galatasaray-Lazio is a friendly and will be played on Tuesday at 16:00: news, statistics, live TV, streaming, likely formations, predictions
If it were up to Maurizio Sarri these World Cups would not even have been played. The Lazio coach, before Serie A went on holiday to make way for the World Cup currently being held in Qatar, had publicly expressed his dissent at the decision to hold the World Cup in a country whose movement “has never given anything concrete to football, apart from money to Psg and Manchester City”.
For the Tuscan coach, it was absurd to force the clubs into that gruelling tour de force from August to November, squeezing the calendars and squeezing the players to the limit. And it is no coincidence that his team has been one of the hardest hit by injuries, including that of top scorer Ciro Immobile, who is set to return in today’s friendly against Galatasaray.
For the past week or so, the Biancocelesti have been back sweating on the pitch. Double sessions, athletic tests and, as usual, lots of tactics. Now it’s time for the friendlies: Lazio will play two within a few days in Turkey against Galatasaray and Hatayspor. In seven days instead, the Capitolini will leave for Spain to face Cadiz. It is between these two countries that Maurizio Sarri’s men, while waiting to re-embrace national team members Milinkovic-Savic and Vecino – who returned from the World Cup with Serbia and Uruguay but were both eliminated in the group stage – will prepare for their first official match against Lecce, scheduled for 4 January.
In Salento, Lazio will be looking to turn the page after that severe 3-0 defeat at home to Juventus on the final day of 2022. A heavy defeat which, however, did not worsen the Biancoceleste standings: Immobile and his team-mates will start from fourth place, paired with the former Inzaghi’s Inter. Okan Buruk’s Galatasaray, on the other hand, have already faced three friendlies: the Giallorossi lost to Rayo Vallecano and Villarreal and drew 2-2 with Adana Demirspor. The Istanbul outfit will take to the pitch much earlier than Lazio: in 10 days’ time, the national cup match against Ankara is scheduled.
Okan Buruk
The Prediction
Galatasaray have not particularly shone in the last few friendlies, but compared to Lazio they certainly have more minutes in their legs, having to start much earlier. The Turks should therefore avoid defeat in a match with at least one goal each.
The likely Galatasaray-Lazio line-up
- GALATASARAY (4-2-3-1): Okan Kocuk; Boey, Nelsson, Bardakci, Tasdemir; Bayram, Sergio Oliveira; Yilmaz, Kutlu, Rashica; Icardi.
- LAZIO (4-3-3): Provedel; Hysaj, Casale, Romagnoli, Radu; Cataldi, Marcos Antonio, Luis Alberto; Felipe Anderson, Immobile, Zaccagni.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-2
