Immobile leapfrogs Inter

The Biancocelesti knew they could take advantage of Inter’s 3-1 defeat to Napoli earlier today. Danilo Cataldi was still out of action and Matias Vecino returned to midfield. The hosts missed Isaac Success, Gerard Deulofeu, Kingsley Ehizibue, Enzo Ebosse, Simone Pafundi and suspended Rodrigo Becao, but Norberto Beto was back from injury.

Mattia Zaccagni floated a ball over the top for Ciro Immobile’s header, fingertipped over the bar by Marco Silvestri, while Lazar Samardzic failed to keep his header on target from a similar position and Sandi Lovric hit a fresh-air volley.

Lazio threatened when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic surged forward, nutmegged Adam Masina and Immobile laid it off for a Luis Alberto scorcher to skim the frame of the goal. Pedro came on for the restart and immediately sent Immobile through to force a great one-handed save from Silvestri, while Nehuen Perez got a decisive block on Luis Alberto and Matias Vecino’s volley flashed just wide.

Lazio received an extremely soft penalty when Masina left his foot dangling and Immobile in turn dangled to ensure there was contact. VAR did not intervene, because there was contact, and Immobile placed his spot-kick into the near bottom corner. This was the 200th Serie A goal for Lazio that Immobile was directly involved in, scoring 162 and assisting 38.

There was almost a second goal moments later, Alessio Romagnoli’s header on a corner thumping the far post. Silvestri also made a desperate save when Luis Alberto sent Milinkovic-Savic through with an inspired slide-rule pass. Udinese had the ball in the net on 85 minutes with an Ilija Nestorovski header, but he was clearly offside, and they poured forward to the final whistle.