AGI – After the bitter elimination from the Italian Cup at the hands of Juventus, Lazio immediately returned to smiling by achieving their third consecutive victory in the championship. Hellas Verona beat 1-0 at the Olympic Stadium thanks to the most classic of goals from former signing Mattia Zaccagni, who also scored in the first leg. With this success the team of the other great ex, Tudor, momentarily rises to sixth place at 55 points, +1 on Atalanta (with two games less) and -3 from fifth place Roma who will play in Naples tomorrow.
After a draw and a defeat, Baroni’s team loses again, stuck at 31 points and for now only +3 above the relegation zone. As expected, the hosts attempted to take control of the game in the early stages of the game, but only created the first opportunity in the 18th minute: from a corner situation the ball slipped to the far post near Isaksen, whose left-footed low shot from the first intention is rejected by Montipò.
The biggest chance of the first half, however, came to the Scala team shortly after the half hour mark: Mandas completely missed the exit on a cross aimed at Noslin and left the goal unprotected, but Swiderski smothered the conclusion on the loose ball and wasted everything. At the start of the second half Lazio started strongly and in the 48th minute they came close to taking the lead with Felipe Anderson, who was unlucky to hit the crossbar with a nice right-footed shot from outside the area (Montipò also did well in barely touching the ball).
A handful of minutes later, however, Luis Alberto had an inviting opportunity at the end of a restart, but the Spaniard misdirected a right-footed shot from his tile. Tudor’s men continue to press, they miss another couple of scoring opportunities with Pedro and Castellanos, but in the 72nd minute they deservedly break the deadlock in the match with the newly introduced Zaccagni, who receives from Luis Alberto and scores the former’s goal in front of goal. Verona responded in the 82nd minute on a dead ball, with an almost fortuitous deflection by Coppola saved by Mandas thanks to a good reflex, while at the other end Pedro came close to doubling the score by hitting the post with a surprise free kick. At the last available second Henry has the equalizing shot on his right, but he misses it by incredibly lifting it over the crossbar.
