The clock was ticking towards full time in the Stadio Olimpico, and Lazio needed a goal. Serie A table-toppers Napoli were headed for their eighth victory in 10 matches until the 87th minute, when Boulaye Dia fired a pass that skirted past Tijjani Noslin and found its way towards Mattia Zaccagni. Whilst a slew of Napoli players sprinted towards him, Zaccagni slowed things down with his back towards goal, patiently deliberated his options, and waited for his cavalry to arrive before finding Dia, who caressed a shot into the bottom-left corner. It was the sixth straight match where Lazio avoided defeat against Napoli, and it was also the third straight match where Zaccagni provided an assist.
By Zach Lowy
Since that 2-2 draw in Rome, Lazio have drawn 0-0 at Venezia and lost 2-0 to Inter in the Coppa Italia quarterfinal, but they nevertheless remain a strong contender for UEFA Champions League qualification and can book their ticket via two different paths: Lazio sit fifth in the league table, two points behind Juventus who occupy the fourth and final Champions League spot, whilst they will go into their UEFA Europa League Round of 16 match against Viktoria Plzeň as the overwhelming favorites. But if they are to claim their first European trophy in 26 years, they’ll need Mattia Zaccagni to be at his brilliant best.
After developing at AC Bellaria Igea Marina, Zaccagni joined Hellas Verona in 2013, where he played for the youth teams before cutting his teeth with then Serie C sides Venezia and Cittadella on loan. Zaccagni broke into the Hellas first-team in 2016/17 and emerged as a regular contributor as the Gialloblu oscillated between the top-flight and second tier, but it wasn’t until the 2019/20 season that he managed to make a name for himself in Serie A under Ivan Jurić. Having previously been utilized as a holding midfielder, Jurić moved him to an attacking midfield role, where he has played ever since. The Croatian manager saw that Zaccagni interpreted football differently to his other players – he was someone who had the creativity, dynamism and vision to improvise and create a solution out of thin air.
“He’s one of the most intelligent players I’ve coached so far,” stated Jurić. “He has the rare ability to play well while also making the game easier for his teammates.”
It wasn’t long before Italy’s biggest teams came calling, with Lazio signing Zaccagni on loan with a conditional obligation to buy for €7.1 million on August 31, 2021. After gradually adjusting to Maurizio Sarri’s tactics in 2021/22, Zaccagni enjoyed a career-best season in 2022/23, registering 10 goals and 7 assists in 35 league appearances as Lazio finished second. He took a step back in 2023/24 with 6 goals and 2 assists in 28 matches as Lazio regressed to seventh, causing them to sack Sarri in March, but that didn’t stop Italy manager Luciano Spalletti from calling him up for the 2024 UEFA European Championship. Two years after making his Azzurri debut, Zaccagni was going to be playing in a major tournament for the first time.
After riding the bench vs. Albania and playing a half-hour vs. Spain, Zaccagni was thrown on for the final minutes of their group stage match vs. Croatia, who were winning 1-0. If the result held, Italy’s campaign would go up in flames. In the final minute, Riccardo Calafiori trotted infield and found an unmarked Zaccagni. Rather than taking a touch to steady himself, Zaccagni chose to speed things up and blast a rocket into the top-right corner, keeping Italy’s title hopes alive by a razor-thin margin. Italy ended up losing to Switzerland in the following round, but the message was clear: Zaccagni was ready to take the next step and cement himself as one of the best players in Serie A.
Lazio rewarded Zaccagni’s stellar displays with a contract extension until 2029 before undertaking a summer rebuild that saw them lose three veteran leaders in attack in Felipe Anderson, Luis Alberto, and all-time leading scorer Ciro Immobile. Zaccagni took the No. 10 shirt from Alberto and the captain’s armband from Immobile, and it’s obvious that this added responsibility has worked wonders for his confidence. Zaccagni has excelled on the left side of attack in Marco Baroni’s 4-2-3-1, capable of attracting multiple opponents before deftly maneuvering past them and generating a numerical superiority in the final third. He has the anticipation and fearlessness to get to loose balls before his rival, as well as the ingenuity and finesse to protect the ball and force his marker into fouling him in order to stop the flow.
Having previously been accustomed to ‘death by 1000 passes’ under Sarri, Lazio are now employing a more direct attacking approach under new manager Marco Baroni. It means Zaccagni has far more time and space to work with instead of being congested into the final third, and it also means that his teammates will look to provide him with the ball almost immediately. And whilst Zaccagni was previously used to being double-teamed, the arrival of Nuno Tavares means that Lazio now have a left back who can bomb forward, attract the attention of the opposing defenders, and enable Zaccagni to shift inside and wreak havoc.
“Zaccagni has become more of a leader,” stated Vittorio Campanile, the co-host of the English-language podcast Lazio Lounge. “He’s the most experienced player we have in the team alongside Alessio Romagnoli. He’s the Lazio player with the most quality, and as such, he needs to be the leader.”
“What Baroni wants is a winger that starts from the left and moves centrally before making a key pass or a shot on target in the half-spaces, which dovetails nicely with Zaccagni’s style. Zaccagni always shined with Sarri by moving centrally and trying to finish rather than going to the corner and whipping in crosses. He loves to be one-on-one with the defender, and 75% of the time, he’ll win the duel and create chances as a result.”
Zaccagni may not be the quickest player or the tallest at 5’9”, but when it comes to in-game intelligence, he’s a titan on the pitch. He has the intangible ability of being in the right place at the right time and choosing the passing option that, even if it isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, yields the highest chances of resulting in a goal. He’s capable of instigating counter-attacks with his adroit footwork, ball manipulation, and audacious dribbles, and when the going gets tough, he’s the player that other Lazio players look for to create a golden opportunity. He’s someone who, on account of reading the game a step quicker than the other 20 outfield players, has the know-how and pausa to slow the game down before stepping on the gas and pushing the attack into overdrive.
As he approaches 30 years old, Mattia Zaccagni is hitting the best form of his entire career. Having registered just nine goal contributions in 36 appearances last season, he’s already provided 17 goal contributions in 32 for Lazio, who will visit Milan on Sunday. Zaccagni has not only established himself as a role model for Lazio’s younger players like Nicolò Rovella and Gustav Isaksen, but he’s staked his claim as one of the best players in Serie A. He’s created 44 chances – second only to Genoa’s Aarón Caricol (51) – and he is the top rated Serie A player in FotMob’s database, with only Ademola Lookman (7.53) close to his 7.55 average rating.
Back when he was enjoying his breakout season in Verona, Jurić stated, “If [Zaccagni] can learn how to be more incisive in the last 20-25 metres, he can aspire to be in the national team.” So far, Zaccagni hasn’t quite managed to nail down a place in the Azzurri setup, making just nine appearances, playing just four minutes since the Euros, and missing out on the last two international call-ups. With Spalletti preferring a 3-5-1-1 formation with two strikers working in tandem, it seems there isn’t quite a natural fit for Zaccagni in the line-up. However, if he continues to deliver the goods for Lazio, Spalletti may have no other choice but to recall him for the March international window.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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