Mission accomplished for Lazio who, albeit with a few too many worries, beat Cagliari 2-1 to take third place in the standings – jointly with Fiorentina and Atalanta – taking themselves just three points behind leaders Napoli.
The evening starts off great for Baroni, awarded as the best coach of the month of October, who once again fields Noslin in place of Zaccagni in the trident behind striker Castellanos. On the other side, Nicola responds with Piccoli going forward and Luvumbo trying to undermine the Lazio defense with his accelerations. Everything seems easy for Lazio who immediately puts the game on the back foot by taking advantage of Scuffet’s clumsy clearance, on the free kick kicked by Pellegrini, thanks to which Dia can reiterate the effort into the net. The advantage seems to be the antechamber to the goleada, a sensation exacerbated by the first minutes in which Baroni’s team seems to be in control. However, that feeling was undermined by the post, which rejected Castellanos’ shot from 25 metres.
From there Cagliari begins to take courage, Luvumbo finds space on the left and the equalizer comes from the Angolan’s feet thanks to a dirty right-footed shot which finds Gila’s unfortunate deflection to prevent Provedel from making an intervention and giving the equalizing goal to Nicola’s team goes to half-time at 1-1. In the second half Baroni tries to mix the cards by removing Noslin for Vecino, we switch to 4-3-3. And the great opportunity arrives with the Uruguayan who, after Luperto’s save on Castellanos’ header, turns without fail but still finds the body of the Cagliari number 6, thus confirming that the evening is not the luckiest for the Lazio.
Baroni tries to find the joker by inserting Pedro, Castellanos comes close to scoring again with a right-footed volley that grazes the post but does not find the big target. The one who finds the decisive play, however, is Pellegrini who, in the area, anticipates Zortea and wins the penalty which Zaccagni, as soon as he came in, converts, making his return to the field in the best possible way after the gastroenteritis which had kept him out against Genoa and How.
Cagliari’s nerves are breakingwithin a few seconds Mina gets the second yellow card which gets him sent off, Adopo, already booked, protests and follows his teammate into the locker room ahead of the end of the match. It is the signal of surrender for Cagliari, who at 9 against 11, are no longer able to offer play, Lazio can manage and snatch another victory which projects the Biancocelesti into third place together with Atalanta and Fiorentina allowing Baroni’s troop to dream big. While Nicola and his team are unable to move away from the hot zone, suffering their third consecutive defeat.
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