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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Fenerbahce vs Lazio Europa League - 04 April 2013

Fenerbahce vs Lazio - UEFA Europa League
Match date: 4 April 2013
Kick Off Time: 20:05 GMT
Venue: Sukru Saracoglu Stadium, Turkey 

 Fenerbahce are in some great form with 4 wins and a draw in their last 5 matches.  They are 2nd in the Turkish Super Lig, just 4 points behind Galatasaray.  In the last round of the Europa League they beat Czech side Viktoria Plzen but will face a much bigger test against Lazio.
 Italian teams usually don’t take this competition seriously but Lazio have performed well throughout.  They faced two top German sides in Gladbach and Stuttgart in the knockout stages and were undefeated against both, beating Stuttgart home and away last round.  In the league Lazio are in a tight race for a European place and with a Rome derby against Roma at the weekend they might have their focus looking beyond this game.
 Lazio has lost contact with the top 3 sides in Serie A after suffering three consecutive defeats in March, but the Biancocelesti are doing great in the Europa League.
Petkovic’s team is the highest scoring side left in the competition with 19 goals since the start of the group stage. Five of those goals came in the round of 16 tie against Stuttgart, in which the Italians demolished the Bundesliga side with 5-1 on aggregate.
Lazio hold a solid W3 D0 L1 record in Turkey having won on their last two visits there. Lazio beat Besiktas in 2003 in the quarter finals of the Uefa Cup, which was the last time when the Italians made it so far in the competition.
There are some important absences in Lazio’s squad, Floccari, Andre Dias, Abdoulaye Konko and Pereirinha are all injured, but the good news is that they’ll have Miroslav Klose back after recovering from an injury.


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