A night full of life awaits him, with the usual passion and intensity. After allowing Denmark to equalize late in the match against Belarus, which was actually needed for the World Cup pass, Gustav Isaksen will play tonight in Glasgow (20:45) for the top spot in the group. The line is thin; in an instant, he can go from direct qualification to the same playoffs where Gattuso’s Italy has ended for the third consecutive time. The Danes have one more point than Scotland, 11 to 10, and a draw would be enough to stay ahead, but the previous match suggests that everything is still at stake and that Isaksen could become one of the decisive players in this last group match. Whatever happens, the winger will return to Rome tomorrow and from Thursday he can return to work with Lazio to prepare for the match against Lecce with the awareness of having secured a starting spot. And not just because Cancellieri, the great revelation of the start, will have to stay out almost until Christmas, but also because his return has convinced Sarri, more than ever determined to rely on the Dane in the absence of goals from the center forward, whether it’s Castellanos or Dia.
Isaksen, we recall, was decisive in the match against Tudor’s last Juve with his breakthroughs and then scored the first goal of the victory against Cagliari at the Olimpico. It didn’t go as well in Pisa and Milan against Inter, where he lost a poisoned ball allowing the Nerazzurri to take the lead after a couple of minutes. Amid highs and lows, with no alternatives, Isaksen represents one of Lazio’s few certainties even if Bologna in the summer would have invested 20 million just to hand him over to Italiano. However, the market block prevented President Lotito from making a capital gain that would have been essential for the club’s accounts.
“Someone like him can’t score a goal every 10 games,” Sarri thundered to motivate him. And indeed, at Midtjylland, in the 2022/23 season, he had scored 22 goals in 45 games, including two against the Biancocelesti in the Europa League double-header: one in the first leg (5-1 for the Danes) and one in the return leg (2-1 for the Biancocelesti). In Sarri’s first Lazio (and Tudor), Isaksen had only scored 3 goals in Serie A, playing a total of 1678 minutes. Forty-nine appearances, for 2871 minutes, in the following season with Baroni and 6 goals, 4 in the league and 2 in the Europa League. Now he has just scored the first against Cagliari but Isaksen, who has just broken up with his partner Olivia Holdt, a Tottenham player (“I will feel more alone and miss my family”), wants to increase the tally already against Lecce. In the meantime, he scored the decisive goal for Denmark’s 2-2 against Belarus, taking another step forward towards the best condition after the long summer break due to mononucleosis.
The Dane, who has a contract with Lazio until June 2028, has entered the top 13 players in the league for fouls suffered in just six games, along with Roma’s Soulé (20) and teammate Zaccagni, alone at the top. Eight were whistled in the match against Juve, when Tudor changed his marker several times. In last season’s Serie A, Gustav, on the other hand, finished with 45 fouls: a good potential for set pieces but Sarri now wants goals because Cancellieri is still out and Pedro, at least according to the coach, no longer has the physical continuity to play as a winger. From now until Christmas, Isaksen will have a guaranteed spot: it will be up to him to seize the great opportunity.
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