Lazio beat Sampdoria 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday afternoon in Serie A.
The Aquile continued their pursuit of fifth placed Inter and European qualification with an important victory over the Blucherchiati through goals from Antonio Candreva and Senad Lulic, as Lucas Biglia was sent off in Rome.
In a largely uninspiring first half it was the hosts that went into the break ahead with a late goal from Candreva, who had looked the most likely to break the deadlock in the absence of striker Miroslav Klose, ruled out through injury in the morning.
Despite the chance to capitalise on Inter dropping more points against Bologna on Saturday night the match started slowly with the Biancocelesti seemingly happy to bide their time against an improving Sampdoria.
Yet Italian international Candreva looked keen to follow up his winning strike against Parma last Sunday and was first to take aim on 17 minutes just inside the Sampdoria box, but blazed his effort well over.
However, although dominating the early exchanges a lack of urgency from Lazio nearly allowed the Blucherchiati to take the lead shortly after from two well worked set pieces.
First, a free-kick saw a scramble in the box lead to Maxi Lopez having a shot was charged down yards from goal, then the resulting corner was pulled back to Manolo Gabbiadini’s usually dependable left foot only for the youngster blast his strike wide.
The next chance again fell to Candreva, played in on the right by Eddy Onazi, but he drove the ball too close to goalkeeper Da Costa who palmed away and the follow up strike from the Nigerian was inadvertently handled by Helder Postiga.
Eventually Lazio did take the lead, the impressive Keita Balde surging past left-back Gaetano Berardi and delivering low to Candreva on the penalty spot who connected just well enough to send the ball just inside Da Costa’s right hand post.
With 30 minutes remaining Lazio were down to 10 men when a misplaced pass from Biglia forced the midfielder to chase back and commit a foul on Nenad Krsticic for which he received his second caution, however, no further punishment was suffered as Eder drove the free-kick into the wall.
Despite the numerical disadvantage it was the Biancocelesti who nearly went further ahead, Keita again charging down the right wing and delivering an inviting ball into the box and as Shkodran Mustafi attempted to stop the cross he nearly sent the ball into his own net.
Minutes later the Aquile did have the two goal cushion they desired when the ball broke to substitute Stefano Mauri on the left and fed the onrushing Lulic to fire into the roof of the net from 10 yards.
Just a point away from fifth Edoardo Reja and his side face a difficult trip to Naples next weekend, however, with that arguably the biggest test of their remaining six matches they could be in for an interesting end to their Serie A campaign.
Follow Kevin Pogorzelski on Twitter: @rabbitrabbiton
