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It has been a long wait for Lazio.
Tuesday marked the end of a 13-year wait for a Champions League group stage match, or 4,697 days to be exact.
There has been a lot of pain in the meantime. In their efforts to return to the European football exhibition tournament, the capital club has been denied by goal difference, a loss in the play-offs and a collapse on the final day.
Still, there was an air of fear among the Laziali ahead of their clash with Borussia Dortmund in Rome on Tuesday.
Anyone who witnessed the horror spectacle of their 3-0 defeat at Sampdoria on Saturday will understand why.
A terrible display summed up a disappointing start to the season, in which Simone Inzaghi’s team has carried bad form from the end of the 2019/20 season into the new campaign.
What’s more, the problems that were responsible for the disaster at the Marassi – injury problems, poor form and exhausted morale – had not disappeared when the German giants arrived in the city.
What followed was an amazing reminder of the quality that this team possesses. Lazio put on by far his best display since blocking, with a performance that was clinical, authoritative and intelligent.
Ciro Immobile’s face was triumphantly slapped on the covers Wednesday morning. The word “revenge” was hurled by journalists with machine-gun speed.
But it wasn’t about revenge. Immobile just did what it always does. He scored a goal, prepared another.
The Italian international, like almost all his teammates, made a superb change.
But the only people who expressed surprise were those who, disconcertingly, continue to insist that the 30-year-old’s disappointing 2014/15 season in Germany has overshadowed his career.
It was a bad year for the forward. Immobile scored just three goals in the Bundesliga and was hailed as a disastrous move by the fans.
However, it was his first time out of Italy and he was not given a second chance, despite hinting at his ability on the European stage with four goals in six Champions League games with the German club.
If the forward had just returned to Italy this year after failing in Germany, perhaps the narrative of him proving a point against his former employers would have some substance.
But it was five years ago, and only three members of the Dortmund team who traveled to Rome on Tuesday, Mats Hummels, Lukasz Piszczek and Marco Reus, were at the club at the same time as Immobile. Jurgen Klopp is long gone.
With all due respect to Dortmund, it is not a European superclub at the level of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich. A player’s career shouldn’t be defined by any season there, good or bad.
Since leaving Germany, Immobile has been crowned capocannoniere twice, won the European Golden Boot, equaled a season scoring record in Serie A and won the Europa League top scorer.
He has also become Lazio’s second top scorer of all time and led the club to Coppa Italia glory, two Italian Supercoppa victories and a return to the Champions League for the first time since 2007.
Those are career defining achievements, not a bad year in Germany.
While Immobile’s “revenge” is a delightful narrative for hungry pirates, it may be time to change the record.
Much water has flowed under the bridge since Immobile’s days in Germany, and his remarkable list of accomplishments since he returned to Italy deserves far more applause than it receives.
Perhaps, after his impressive start to the Biancocelesti’s European campaign, Ciro will find an audience more appreciative of his talent in Europe than at home. Time to move.
The post It’s time to move on: Lazio Immobile legend has nothing more to prove to Dortmund first appeared on Forza Italian Football.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com
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