Lazio-Roma, Felipe Anderson creates, finalizes and chases the encore for the extension

It’s easy to go back to the first leg, to that goal of his that decided the Roman derby already in the first half. Easy, but also inevitable, because today as then Felipe Anderson will be the front man of the Biancoceleste attack. Falso nueve or atypical first point is of little importance. Maurizio Sarri asks him – convinced that he can guarantee it – what the Brazilian already did in November: bear the weight of Lazio’s offensive manoeuvre. Turn on the light, with an assist or a goal, as he knows how to do when it’s a day of grace.

Previous

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It was understood that he was a derby man since his first derby in Rome, way back in January 2015. It was his second year in the biancoceleste, but the first effective one after the initial season with Lazio. On his debut in the most awaited match in the capital, Felipe Anderson was the star performer in the first half, when with a goal and an assist (for Mauri) he put Lazio up 2-0 (in the second half Roma came from behind to make it 2-2 with brace from Totti). Except that then, after such a devastating impact, in the following derbies the Brazilian became the protagonist of good performances, without however finding new sharp points in terms of goals and assists. In his second life as a Lazio player, after the interlude of the three years spent between West Ham and Porto, Anderson has however found the feeling with the derby again, and how if he has found it. A goal and an assist (for Milinkovic) in his first new derby in autumn 2021 (and Lazio win 3-2), another goal in this season’s first leg match (and Lazio win 1-0).

True new

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Last November was also his first derby played as a centre-forward. A role to which the Brazilian footballer initially called her, while now he has decidedly switched to you. To the point that he, in this position, scored 6 of the 8 goals scored overall during the season. A role that he interprets in his own way, varying on the whole front of the attack, sometimes withdrawing to favor the insertions of the midfielders. The result is that, with his ability not to give his opponents points of reference, he almost always sends them into crisis. But as the weeks went by Anderson also improved his finishing skills a lot. The goal scored on Thursday in Alkmaar in the Conference, even if useless for the purposes of the result, was nonetheless important. First, because it allowed him to return to scoring (the last time he scored on January 24 against Milan) and then, even more so, because it was a “true new” goal. Confirming the fact that he is now increasingly at ease in that role of first striker.

The encore and the record

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With these premises, Felipe will now go on the assault of new feats. Without Immobile, with Milinkovic and Luis Alberto who continue to alternate convincing proofs with others in a minor tone, the Brazilian’s class is one of the most important weapons on which Maurizio Sarri points. Felipe obviously dreams of another goal, possibly as decisive as the one scored four and a half months ago. It would be for him the first encore in a derby within the same championship. And it would also mean reaching double figures in terms of the number of goals of the season (he is at 9), with the personal record for scoring ever closer. It is 11 goals for Felipe, he established it in that 2014-15 season in which he had that devastating impact with the Roman derby. Historical courses and recurrences that intertwine.