Lazio, still fighting for a spot in Europe after their recent renaissance, takes on midtable Monza this Saturday night.
The Serie A runners-up from last year have had a more difficult season, but they are back and will try to prolong their hosts' misery under new leadership.
Igor Tudor, the new Lazio manager, has made a big impression since taking over at Stadio Olimpico. Last weekend, the team won four out of five league games, with Mattia Zaccagni scoring the lone goal against Hellas Verona in Rome.
After taking over Verona for a short while, Tudor returned to Italy and assisted the Biancocelesti in their comeback from a clear decline at the end of Sarri's rule.
After the latter's departure, Lazio is back in the running for a top-seven finish later this month with the most points in Serie A (15), one more than the newly crowned Inter Milan.
While losing to another of Tudor's old teams, Juventus, in the Coppa Italia semi-final was a difficult pill to swallow, their victory last week put them five points ahead of eighth-place Fiorentina; that being said, the Viola still have one game remaining.
Lazio was able to post three straight clean sheets in Serie A after tightening up at the back, something they had not done since the previous spring, when they were on their way to taking second place behind Napoli, who were leading the league.
After a year, qualification for the Europa Conference League would be sufficient, and eight European spots might be up for grabs, contingent on how well Italian clubs perform in the latter stages of UEFA competitions this season.
For Monza, whose once bright season appears to be fading into mediocrity, any remote hopes of an unusual European debut have long ago evaporated.
The only thing that kept them from losing to Lecce last weekend was Matteo Pessina's spot kick in stoppage time. He coolly converted from 12 yards to negate what looked to be a magnificent late winner by Nikola Krstovic: In Serie A, Monza's captain has already converted seven of the team's eight penalties.
After the 1-1 tie, the Biancorossi's winless streak now stands at five games. This is the first time since Raffaele Palladino, the highly regarded head coach, was promoted from the club's primavera in September 2022, that Palladino has had such a dry spell.
With just the prospect of overtaking 10th-place Torino and achieving a top-half finish to spur them on, Palladino's team is stranded in mid-table, having finished in 11th place on their top-flight debut last year.
Prior to Lazio's arrival, Monza had lost their last two home games against Atalanta BC and Napoli, and they currently behind their capital rivals by 11 points.
A first-ever Serie A victory over the Biancocelesti would at least strengthen efforts to prevent the season from finishing on a depressing note after two losses in the previous campaign and their 1-1 stalemate in the rematch in September.
When the teams play this weekend, Lazio will want to put pressure on the Serie A top-five with a victory against struggling Monza. On Saturday, matchday 35 will take place at Stadio Brianteo. The hosts are ranked 11th with 44 points, while the visitors are ranked sixth with 55 points. Although Monza isn't exactly in the top ten, their recent performance hasn't been strong enough to support them to go up. Five league games have gone by without a victory for the hosts, including a 1-1 draw against Lecce. That made Monza's record throughout this time frame two draws and three losses. Prior to this bad run of form, four victories over five games had been offset by this series.
Due to the increase in qualifying spots, Lazio is currently four points off of the top five, which should be enough for a Champions League spot the following season. However, the visitors must continue to win and hope that Roma and Atalanta, the teams above, drop points. Recent results give Lazio optimism that they can fulfill their end of the contract. The visitors have won five of their last six league games, including three straight, after defeating Verona 1-0. They've now won four straight in all competitions, including their victory over Juventus in the Coppa Italia second-leg match. They should feel more confident now to overcome their dismal away record—two victories and two loses in their previous four league travels.
One of the more aspirational teams in Italian football right now, Monza hopes to finish in the top eight and qualify for the UEFA Europa Conference League, despite only being promoted to the top division for the first time in 2022. With four games remaining in the season, they are only six points behind the European berths on match day.
With a 1-1 draw against Lecce in their previous match at Stadio Comunale Via del Mare last weekend, the home club enters this one with momentum. This indicates that since returning from the March international break, the hosts have lost their last five games.
Midway through March, Lazio parted ways with Maurizio Sarri, who was subsequently succeeded by Igor Tudor, the former manager of Hellas Verona and Olympique de Marseille. Tudor is trying to improve the Sarri-implemented style of football by playing a front-foot game, as Sarri may have placed too much emphasis on control.
Following a significant uptick in their results since Tudor's hiring, the capital city team is currently positioned just inside the top eight and the European berths going into this weekend's games. They have now won six and lost two of their previous eight games in all competitions after their 1-0 victory over Hellas Verona last weekend.
