Fenerbahce will host Italian side Lazio in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-final tie at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium in Turkey.
Lazio manager, Vladimir Petković has very fond memories of this stadium – his former team BSC Young Boys defeated the Turkish side in the Europa League qualifying rounds back in 2010-11 season.
Fenerbahce are coming into this match on the back of a convincing 2-0 win last weekend over lowly Akhisar in the Turkish Super League. They are currently in second in the domestic league, just four points behind arch rivals Galatasaray. The Fenerbahce are on a good run of form lately and have lost just thrice in their last 20 games (in all competitions), which includes the 3-2 defeat at the hands of 1461 Trabzon in the cup.
In the last round they scraped past Viktoria Plzen courtesy of Salih Ucan’s strike in the first half of the second leg at home. They have been far from convincing in the knockout rounds so far and will need a great performance at home in the first leg to have any hope of beating Lazio in this tie.
Lazio on the other hand are the only club which is still unbeaten in the competition and are currently the top scorer in Europa League as well. But the Biancazzurri have struggled in the league off late and have lost six of their last nine matches in Serie A –which has dealt a heavy blow to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season. Lazio are currently fifth in the table and are closely followed by Inter and Roma and if they don’t improve their form, they might as well find themselves out of Europe next season.
But Vladimir Petković’s side are coming into this match on the back of an important 2-1 win over Catania – albeit with a bit of luck. Their form in Europe has been outstanding though. The smashed five goals past Stuttgart over two legs in the last round – courtesy of an outstanding hattrick by Europa League’s top scorer Libor Kozak in the second leg. In fact they also scored five goals against a strong Monchengladbach side in the knockout previous round.
Match date: April 5, 2013 3:00 PM,ET
Sukrü Saracogu Stadium — İstanbul / Turkey
Team Lineups :
Fenerbahçe
Volkan, Gokhan, Bekir, Yobo, Ziegler, Meireles, Selcuk
Kuyt, Baroni, Caner, Sow
Kuyt, Baroni, Caner, Sow
Lazio
Marchetti, Biava, Cana, Dias, Radu, Mauri, G’lez, Ledesma, Lulic, Hernanes, Klose
