Rome, March 3 (IANS) Goals from Ecuador’s Felipe Caicedo and Ciro Immobile, as well as Dino Cataldi helped Lazio to a 3-0 win over Roma in the 26th round of the Serie A, Italy’s First Division.
Two years after their last, Lazio once again won a derby in the Italian capital on Saturday, which is helping to revive their European ambitions, as they are now three points behind fifth-placed Roma and six points behind fourth-placed Inter Milan, reports Efe news.
Coach Simone Inzaghi’s side must also still play a game against Udinese, which was postponed last week, so they have the chance to move within three points of the Champions League zone.
Roma started in form at the Olympic Stadium after three successive wins but their Greek defender Kostas Manolas was suffering from a stomach bug and couldn’t play. However, it was Lazio, who had to recover their pride after their European League elimination against Sevilla and three defeats in the last five league matches, who took the best initiative.
And the prize for Lazio’s big push came in the 12th minute, when Joaquin Correa, offered a great pass to Felipe Caicedo who controlled it and send the ball to the back of the net with his left foot around Roma’s Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
Too soft in the first half, Roma improved in the second half and began to come dangerously close to the goal of Lazio’s attentive Albanian goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha. Lorenzo Pellegrini (49th), Stephan El Shaarawy (59th) and Alessandro Florenzi (67th) tried from outside the area, but were blocked by some great interventions from the goalkeeper.
The best chance was in the 69th minute by Argentine Javier Pastore, but he couldn’t convert a rebound and wastefully fired wide.
It was a serious mistake, which ended up being punished in a counter-attack by Lazio, again with an assist by Correa. The Argentinian was running towards the goal of Olsen leaving his compatriot Federico Fazio outpaced and resorting to bringing down the striker, which resulted in a penalty shot with which Immobile, just eight minutes after coming on as a substitute, decided the derby in the 73rd minute.
It was a psychological blow for a Roma who then had to suffer the final 3-0 by Danilo Cataldi in the 89th minute and were left in the end with only ten men, after a double warning for Serbian Aleksandar Kolarov.
–IANS
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