Lazio were made to sweat far more than they would have liked as they kept their dreams of a top-four finish alive in a narrow 4-3 win over Genoa at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday afternoon, despite having a three-goal lead with just over ten minutes to play.
Another Joaquin Correa brace, a Ciro Immobile penalty and a fine Luis Alberto strike looked to have allowed for Adam Marusic’s own goal early in the second half to be forgotten. Gianluca Scamacca and Eldor Shomurodov pulled two back for the Grifone with around ten minutes to play, however, making for an interesting end.
Lazio’s lead came after half an hour and in rather fortuitous fashion. Having worked their way into the box nicely, Joaquin Correa picked up on Luis Alberto’s lay-off. After Correa had set himself, Ivan Radovanovic intercepted but could only boot his attempted clearance off of the Lazio forward, with the ball ricocheting past Mattia Perin into the bottom corner.
Perin had been relatively solid for much of the first half and would have been disappointed to have conceded again before the break, this time with Immobile converting a penalty.
The Grifone looked to show life early in the second half, scoring with just a minute played as Adam Marusic helplessly turned into his own goal, leaving Gianluca Scamacca visibly annoyed that a tap-in had been taken away from him despite his team halving the deficit.
But Lazio responded immediately at the other end. Less than two minutes after their lead was cut in half, Luis Alberto curled in an excellent third for the Biancocelesti.
Correa then killed things off by grabbing a fourth not long later, bagging his fourth in his last two games and his eighth for the Serie A season overall.
Genoa were awarded a late penalty that Scamacca converted, which appeared to be no more than a consolation with ten minutes to play until they scored again seconds later through Shomurodov to pull themselves within a goal of their hosts.
The win leaves Lazio two points off both Juventus and Napoli, each play later on Sunday.
