Lazio will travel away to face Sparta Prague at the Stadion Letna in Prague on Thursday night in the first leg of their round of 16 tie in the Europa League.
Sparta go into this European fixture after defeating Jablonec 2-1 on Sunday and they are in second place in the Czech First League with 44 points in 19 games, six points behind leaders Viktoria Plzen. The Aquile are eighth in Serie A with 38 points after 28 matches and drew 1-1 on the weekend against Torino.
The Rudi qualified for this stage in the tournament after overcoming Russian side FC Krasnodar 4-0 on aggregate in the Round of 32 while the Biancocelesti eliminated Turkish giants Galatasaray with an aggregate score of 4-2.
Striker David Lafata is expected to be a key player for the Czech side in this tie after scoring five goals in six matches in the competition. Filip Djordjevic is Lazio’s leading scorer with three goals in as many games but five of his teammates have scored two goals each.
With Fiorentina and Napoli out of the Europa League, Lazio are Italy’s sole representatives in the competition. Since Bayer Leverkusen eliminated them in the Champions League qualifiers, the Roman club have not lost a match in Europe’s second-tier competiion this season, winning five and drawing three.
This is the first time Sparta and Lazio will play against each other in the Europa League but they have played each other on two occasions in the Champions League. The Aquile defeated the Rudi 3-0 in Rome and 1-0 in Prague in the 2000/01 season but both teams played out a 2-2 draw in Rome and Sparta won 1-0 in Prague in the 2003/04 edition.
A full team will be available to Sparta coach Zdenek Scasny while his Lazio counterpart Stefano Pioli will only be missing centre-back Stefan De Vrij, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Form Guide: Sparta Prague (D-W-W-W-W) Lazio (W-W-D-D-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Sparta Praha: Bicik; Nhamoinesu, Brabec, Holek; Zahustel, Vacha, Dockal, Marecek, Frydek; Lafata, Fatai
Lazio: Marchetti; Basta, Mauricio, Braafheid, Radu; Parolo, Biglia; Candreva, Milinkovic-Savic, Felipe Anderson; Matri
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com