Lazio and Hellas Verona drew 3-3 in a thriller at the Stadio Olimpico in Serie A action on Monday evening.
The home side took an initial lead through Keita but the Mastini quickly countered with Marquinho before Senad Lulic put the hosts ahead only to see Verona counter with strikes from Iturbe and Romulo before Mauri leveled the score for the third time in the match’s final moments.
There was much at stake in the capital with both squads knowing a victory would put them level with sixth place Torino for the final Europa League spot with only two Serie A fixtures left in the campaign.
Just inside the 10-minute mark the Biancocelesti had a great opportunity as Verona’s Emil Hallfreddson took down Lulic just outside the penalty area and in what turned out to be a very short corner for Lucas Biglia the Argentine sailed his free kick hopelessly over the net into the Roman sky.
The Gialloblu’s first chance occurred moments later when a pair of Lazio defenders failed to communicate and Hallfreddson pounced on the loose ball and found a streaking Luca Toni, but the ever-youthful former World Cup winner just missed out his 20th Serie A goal as his chip went tantalizingly past Etrit Berisha’s far post.
The match provided some foreshadowing just inside the half hour mark when the sides traded rocket shots as Keita created some space at the top of the penalty area but his parry was easily saved and Marquinho’s bullet from outside the area barely sailed over the crossbar.
Lazio hit their visitors on a deadly counter attack straight up the pitch in the 30th minute when Stefano Mauri threaded a beautifully weighted pass through a pair of Gialloblu defenders to Candreva who played an elementary square pass to Keita and the 19-year old Spaniard didn’t miss with only the keeper to beat as as his right-footer found the net for his fifth goal.
It was only minutes later when the Brazilian Marquinho, on loan from Roma, leveled the contest with a right footed daisy-cutter from outside the area which barely evaded the sliding Giuseppe Biava and appeared to surprise Berisha as it went barely past the Albanian.
Verona’s Vangelis Moras rose high to win a free header from a corner just inside the hour mark but he couldn’t direct the strike on frame and the chance went begging.
The Biancocelesti took the lead seconds later when Keita and Lulic played a lovely 1-2 pass at the top of the area and the Bosnian headed it down into his own path and crushed a right-footed volley past a diving Rafael.
The visitors answered yet again in the 70th minute when Jacopo Sala played a threaded ball through to Iturbe to free the young Argentine who cooly finished past Berisha to level the score again.
Iturbe played the role of distributor just shy of 15 minutes from the final whistle when he found Toni alone in the area but the Verona marksman nailed a shot straight at Berisha to deny the visitors a critical late lead in the match.
The Gialloblu missed again on a header from a corner with 10 minutes left when Michelangelo Albertazzi got an inside position on his marker and rose to meet the cross but his header from the six yard box fell just wide of the post.
Lazio’s defense fell asleep in the closing minutes when Stefan Radu failed to clear a low cross right in his path and the ball fell to Romulo who could hardly miss from three yards out to seemingly hand Hellas Verona a lifeline to Europa League play next season in their return to Serie A football.
The sides traded red cards in the match’s final moments first with Lulic being sent off for a horrific tackle Iturbe but it was Albertazzi’s dismissal which will draw the most scrutiny.
Stefano Mauri crossed a hopeful ball into the path of Miroslav Klose and the German international easily fell on a slight touch from Albertazzi and the referee pointed to the spot in the second minute of injury time.
The Lazio captain stepped up to take the penalty which was centrally hit and saved by Rafael but his rebound fell right to Mauri who finished the scoring on a thoroughly entertaining and controversial night in the nation’s capital.
