Lazio ran out 2-0 winners against Cagliari at the Stadio Sant’Elia on Sunday afternoon.
Goals either side of half time from Senad Lulic and Keita Balde gave the Aquile a priceless away victory, whilst Mauricio Pinilla missed a penalty for the hosts with the score at 1-0. The Sardi also had captain Daniele Conti sent off for two bookable offences.
The visitors started with plenty of attacking intent and pushed towards the Cagliari goal, but no clear-cut chances were forthcoming in an uneventful first 10 minutes.
Cagliari then enjoyed a short spell of pressure during which Andrea Cossu tested Federico Marchetti with the game’s first shot on target, but the Biancocelesti custodian punched the curling shot away.
Down at the other end Miroslav Klose had the Aquile’s first strike on goal, but the German international failed to trouble Avramov with his low drive from the right side of the penalty area.
Lulic opened the scoring in the 19th minute of the first half for Lazio, using his speed to run onto Gonzalez’s flicked pass. He proceeded to outpace the Cagliari defence and smash the ball past a helpless Avramov into the roof of the net.
After the goal the Biancazzurri controlled the match, and enjoyed the lion’s share of possession.
Keita Balde made a real nuisance of himself speeding past stand-in left-back Francesco Pisano to deliver numerous dangerous crosses, while the often enigmatic Victor Ibarbo showed a lot of endeavour up front for the hosts.
Lazio started the second half much like they had ended the first – on the front foot and bearing down on Avramov’s goal, with Keita angling a powerful strike over the bar after cutting in from the right shortly after the restart.
Klose rippled the side-netting in the 60th as he kneed the ball beyond Daniele Dessena and went through on the left but he failed to end his recent goal drought, slipping slightly as he shot.
Ibarbo almost had the chance to equalise, and came agonisingly close to getting on the end of Pinilla’s cross, but it was a little behind him and Stefan Radu did just enough to distract him in the six yard box.
Keita struck the ball at Avramov’s chest at point-blank range seconds later, doing well to test him from a tight angle.
Cagliari were then awarded a penalty in the 66th minute after Matias Vecino was brought down by Alvaro Gonzalez though Pinilla hit the resulting penalty wide of the right post though, wasting the opportunity to bring the sides level.
They were made to pay for their profligacy as Keita doubled the away team’s advantage immediately after. Klose played him in with a well-weighted pass, and the Senegalese youngster fired home from inside the box into the bottom right corner of the net.
Substitute Agim Ibraimi unleashed a wonderful left-footed effort from almost 35 metres, and it was going in, with Marchetti having to tip it just over his bar.
Things went from bad to worse for Cagliari when captain Daniele Conti received a second yellow card for an alleged elbow on Lucas Biglia as the pair jumped to win a header.
Keita then nearly hit a third for Lazio but failed to take advantage of Marco Sau’s mistake in the final third, and blazed his effort over the bar from 12 yards.
With Lazio firmly in charge and rarely troubled, they saw out the game to claim a well-deserved three points.
Follow Anthony Alborino on Twitter: @anthonyalborino
