Inter 2-2 Lazio: Strong Nerazzurri comeback steals a point
Felipe Anderson swiftly opened the scoring for Lazio and scored another to give them a strong lead, before Inter’s Mateo Kovacic got one back to give the home side hope, then Rodrigo Palacio his first goal in 225 days and claim a point for Inter.
Inter’s bad form seemed to continue as a terrible clearance from Dodo gave Lazio a throw in within the first two minutes, which ended up with a cross being received by Felipe Anderson, and the 21-year-old Brazilian made no mistake in smashing the ball home to give his side the lead.
Lazio then began to dominate possession as Anderson had a chance to double the lead for them a few minutes later, but his shot went just over the bar.
This gave Inter hope that luck was possibly going their way, which gave Lazio keeper Federico Marchetti a chance to warm up his gloves, as he saved a powerful low driven shot from Fredy Guarin.
Anderson then got his second goal of the night to double Lazio’s lead on 37 minutes, after slotting the ball home despite being crowded by four Inter defenders at the end of a sprint from the halfway line, where the Brazil international gained possession due to a mistake from Inter defender Andrea Ranocchia.
The rest of the first half was a showcase for Lazio defending, as the solidarity of their back line meant that, despite some promising Inter attacks, they went into the break at San Siro with two goals and a clean sheet.
Inter responded well, when a Mauro Icardi shot from a Mateo Kovacic pass went just wide of the goal, and a Kuzmanovic shot from outside the box was deflected dangerously and was just saved by keeper Marchetti.
Inter’s promising attack then continued, when a Rodrigo Palacio shot went just over the bar, which allowed just a small sense of anxiety to creep into the Aquile faithful.
Kovacic then made the Inter attack paid off after the hour mark, with a screamer of a volley smashing against Marchetti’s gloves, but the power of the shot meant it was too much for the Italian goalkeeper and the ball smashed into the back of the net to give Inter hope.
Inter’s period of domination continued when Palacio got his first goal of the season for Inter with a mid-air tap in 10 minutes from time, which silenced the Lazio supporters.
They almost got a third immediately afterwards, but Lazio got through the last 10 minutes and held on to share the points.