Lazio are through to the quarter-final of the Coppa Italia after beating Udinese 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico.
The away side took the lead through a splendid goal from Panagiotis Kone in the second half but goals from Alessandro Matri and Danilo Cataldi saw the Biancocelesti win the match.
Udinese coach Stefano Colantuono decided to rotate the squad heavily after a thumping 4-0 away defeat at the hands of Inter in Serie A but he was forced into an early change when veteran defender Maurizio Domizzi injured himself in a clash with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
It was the hosts, who had the better start to the game with the Lazio players eager to end their run of bad form in the league and they did show attacking intent.
The rest of the first half fizzled out with neither side grabbing the initiative as Udinese soaked up Lazio pressure even though their young ‘keeper Alex Meret had to be alert especially against Matri.
As the second half got underway, the Biancocelesti started to ask more questions of the Udinese defence.
First Antonio Candreva’s volley whistled past the post after being set up by Felipe Anderson and then Abdoulaye Konko had an ambitious effort from about 30 yardas that bounced in front of Meret but was saved nonetheless by the young keeper.
The deadlock was finally broken in great fashion by Udinese on 67 minutes. Kone controlled a cross with his heel and then swung his leg round and acrobatically flicked it into the top-left hand corner.
Lazio were not behind for long though as they found an equaliser just three minutes after thanks to a cool finish from Matri in front of goal.
Ten minutes from time Lazio found the winning goal. A shot from Kongo was brilliantly saved by Meret by Cataldi was on hand to head the ball into the net.
Udinese couldn’t conjure up any meaningful chances in the last few minutes as they were left with only 10 men on the pitch due to Rodrigo Aguirre’s injury.
Lazio will face Juventus in the quarter-final in a repeat of the 2015 final.
