Lazio comprehensively took the spoils in the Derby della Capitale on Friday, as they secured a 3-0 win over Roma in Serie A at the Stadio Olimpico.
The Biancoceleste took advantage of a Roger Ibanez howler to break the deadlock early on through Ciro Immobile, before the Brazilian centre-back failed to deal with the dominant Manuel Lazzari and Luis Alberto doubling the lead.
Roma rarely threatened and saw all hopes of an unlikely comeback extinguished when Luis Alberto netted a second midway through the second half, as Lazio equalled their biggest win in the fixture.
Lazio started on the front foot and tried to get in behind the Roma defence, whilst a quick counterattack allowed Immobile in behind, but the striker scuffed his effort.
At the other end, Jordan Veretout stole possession from a loose goal kick and moved the ball forward for Edin Dzeko to flick into the path of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, but a last ditch Luiz Felipe tackle in the box prevented the Armenian from pulling the trigger.
With only a quarter of an hour gone, Roma gifted their hosts the opening goal with a defensive howler. Ibanez brought down a long Immobile pass in the box but was too slow to react, allowing Manuel Lazzari to race in and intercept, and the loose ball fell to the unmarked Immobile to rifle in from close range.
The Biancoceleste soon doubled their lead as Lazzari raced through once more to skip past Ibanez and went down in the box, before returning to his feet to tee up Luis Alberto to drill home.
Lazio were finding joy with direct passes over the top and Gianluca Mancini showed good awareness to to cut out a pinpoint through ball as Immobile bore down on goal. Roma, meanwhile struggled to make inroads into the box, although Mkhitaryan wasted a fine chance as he sliced wide from a clever Dzeko header.
Lazzari immediately had Ibanez under pressure at the start of the second half as he ran at the Brazilian centre-back, forcing a clumsy effort to stop him, though the Lazio man could not get his shot away.
The Aquile came close to a third on the hour mark as Immobile pulled the ball back for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to drill from range, forcing a good stop from Pau Lopez in goal. Meanwhile, Immobile’s deflected effort looped up for Felipe Caicedo to nod goalward, but the ball fell straight to Lopez.
The match was wrapped up with 25 minutes remaining as Alberto netted his second of the net, with Lazzari involved once more. The wing-back raced forward to release substitute Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro and his cut back was collected by Alberto to bend into the bottom corner.
Roma had few chances to net a consolation, although Pedro saw a header stopped and Dzeko sliced a volley off target, whilst the Bosnian was denied at point blank range at the back post by a sprawling Pepe Reina.
Ultimately, Lazio saw out their clean sheet to secure a dominant victory and move to within three points of their city rivals.
