Lethal Lazio come from behind to stun Juventus

Date: 7th December 2019 at 10:43pm
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Lazio came from behind to seal a thrilling 3-1 victory over 10-man Juventus at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, inflicting a first Serie A defeat on the champions.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s early goal was cancelled out by a Luiz Felipe header on the stroke of halftime, and the match was turned on it’s head when Juan Cuadrado was sent off for bringing down Andrea Lazzari midway through the second period.

The dismissal spurred Lazio on and they completed their comeback through a wonderful Sergej Milinkovic-Savic goal, and despite Ciro Immobile missing a penalty, Felipe Caicedo sealed victory in stoppage time.

Despite Juventus enjoying the majority of the early exchanges, it was Lazio that came closest to breaking the deadlock, as Milinkovic-Savic intercepted a poor Cuadrado crossfield pass and threaded Immobile in. The striker raced through but saw his low shot blocked behind by Matthijs De Ligt.

At the other end, Rodrigo Bentancur collected Ronaldo’s pass to find Paulo Dybala on the edge of the box, and the Argentine forced a good save with a bending first time effort.

Dybala’s influence was growing and the forward almost scored directly from a corner, with Thomas Strakosha having to punch his in-swinging delivery off the line.

Juventus’ attacking play told with 25 minutes gone, as Ronaldo netted his seventh league goal of the season. Having dropped deep to collect the ball, Dybala played into Ronaldo’s feet for a first-time flick over the top, and the Portuguese drifted to the back post to tap in Bentancur’s pinpoint low cross.

Lazio weren’t without chances of their own, with Immobile misjudging Lazzari’s looping cross to the back post and slicing over from close range, and on the stroke of half time the Biancoceleste were level.

After Lucas Leiva’s break into the box resulted in a corner, Luis Alberto collected the short delivery and whipped in an accurate cross for centre-back Luiz Felipe to power home the equaliser.

Both sides pressed for a winner in the second half and Juventus were almost gifted a second early on, courtesy of a dreadful Strakosha pass straight to Dybala. The forward was unable to take advantage however, as he fired back at the keeper.

The match was turned on it’s head midway through the second period with the dismissal of Cuadrado. Having committed men forward, Juventus were hit by a rapid counterattack and the Colombian full-back brought down Lazzari when clean through. Initially being issued with a yellow card, a VAR review saw him receive his marching orders.

Lazio immediately made the most of their numerical advantage with a wonderful goal. Milinkovic-Savic completed the turnaround by racing past De Ligt to bring down a lofted Luis Alberto pass with his right foot before rifling home with his left.

The Aquile had the opportunity to put the match beyond doubt moments later as Joaquin Correa raced clear into the box and rounded Szczesny, only to be clipped for a penalty. The Polish goalkeeper made amends with a fine save from Immobile’s spotkick, before also blocking the follow up.

As Juventus drove forward in search of an equaliser, Lazio killed off the champions on the counter through substitute Caicedo in stoppage time. Lazzari sprinted the length of the field but saw his low shot blocked by Szczesny, though he was powerless to stop Caicedo slotting in.

 

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