Italians without key players

Posted Thursday, October 01, 2009 by PA

Lazio travel to Bulgaria for their second Europa League Group G game missing a number of players through either injury or suspension.

Winless in their last four Serie A games, the Biancoceleste lost their opening European game 2-1 to Salzburg.

They will be without Mobido Diakite, Sebastiano Siviglia and Lionel Scaloni, all ruled out through injury, while fellow defender Aleksandar Kolarov serves a one-match ban.

To add to coach Davide Ballardini's woes, Argentina forward Julio Cruz is also unavailable having sustained a muscular injury during Sunday's 1-1 draw against Palermo.

Ballardini is nevertheless upbeat about his team's chances against Sofia.

"The team has great will to do well," he said. "We played very well against Palermo and we created many goalscoring opportunities.

"I think that performance will give us strength in view of our game on Thursday.

"We must pick up where we left off against Palermo and continue to play with the same confidence and determination."

Lazio will not take Levski lightly, and with good reason.

The Bulgarian outfit have won their last two games against Italian opposition, beating Udinese and Chievo Verona in European competition.

Like Lazio, Levski are also looking to kick-start their campaign in the competition having lost their opener to Villarreal, 1-0.

Ratko Dostanic's men will be desperate to put their domestic woes behind them as they go into the encounter at the Georgi Asparuhov stadium on the back of three consecutive league defeats.

Their poor form has seen Levski drop to ninth in the standings, 10 points behind league leaders CSKA Sofia after six games.

"We know that we are in a very hard situation but this can only be overcome by collecting wins," said Dostanic. "We will try to do our best and take a positive result on Thursday."

Levski's Tsvetan Dimitrov is set to replace Georgi Petkov in goal, with the latter out with a shoulder injury.

The good news for the visitors is that Tommaso Rocchi has recovered from a muscular injury and is set to lead Lazio's attacking line alongside Mauro Zarate.