Lazio 1-0 Fiorentina: Match report and highlights

Pre-match

A barely half full Stadio Olimpico—a combination of a Monday night game (again) and a supporter protest over high ticket prices—saw both Maurizio Sarri and Vincenzo Italiano make some changes. For the hosts, Ciro Immobile started from the bench with Taty Castellanos drawing the start, while the visitors trotted Fabiano Parisi out at rightback. More importantly, let’s all take a moment to enjoy Olimpia (Lazio’s eagle mascot) deciding to hang out with the visiting fans instead of the home ones.

First half

Fiorentina started a bit nervously, making defensive errors that Lazio capitalized on. The closest was Luis Felipe somehow missing from point blank after Castellanos squared it to him. Lucas Beltrán made no such mistake, beating 2 defenders to a Giacomo Bonaventura pass and rounding Ivan Provedel like prime Ronaldo to slot home, but VAR correctly ruled it out for some arm-to-ball contact.

That seemed to gas up Fiorentina, and Beltrán rattled the upright with a header from an Alfred Duncan cross moments later. While Fiorentina kept the pace up, chances were hard to come by and a series of defensive mistakes handed Lazio a way back into the match, even if the Romans weren’t able to trouble Pietro Terracciano’s goal due to their own miscues. They were, however, lucky to escape the half without conceding a penalty as Nicolò Rovella clearly dragged down Jonathan Ikoné in the box; somehow, neither referee Matteo Marcenaro nor VAR Paolo Mazzoleni (a supposed expert) saw anything wrong here.

Second half

With the rain pouring down, both sides had trouble getting passes through the middle and on the ground, leading to a stumbling, hopeless affair. Castellanos whiffed a couple of decent chances and Terracciano made a tremendous save on Felipe Anderson, then again on Castellanos. The Viola, however, weathered that storm well enough, and an inexperienced observer might’ve thought they’d earned a point, although we all knew better. Sure enough, in the last minute of stoppage time, Nikola Milenković blatantly handled a Matías Vecino (Fiorentina beffata!) header, and Immobile slotted home the spot kick. Obviously.

Full time

Goals: Immobile PK 90’+5

Cards: Lazzari 31’, Rovella 45’+2, Sarri 61’ (lol), Zaccagni 66’; Duncan 40’, Ikoné 45’+2, Bonaventura 55’

What’s next

Aside from the sweet embrace of oblivion? Just a fun little visit from a fun little Juventus team for a fun little Sunday. We’re going to have fun, you see. Fun.