Europa League hopefuls Lazio took their fans through an emotional rollercoaster at Alberto Picco but still came out on top of a topsy-turvy fixture against Spezia. Maurizio Sarri’s men fought back three times to prevail 4-3 winners against Thiago Motta’s relegation-battling side.
Spezia hit the front twice before half-time. Ciro Immobile’s penalty just beyond the half-hour mark cancelled out Kelvin Amian’s opener, but Kevin Agudelo fired the home team to a 2-1 half-time lead just two minutes later. Motta’s men thought they would welcome the interval with a two-goal cushion, but VAR disallowed Daniele Verde’s goal.
Lazio replied only three minutes into the second half. Mattia Zaccagni smashed the ball off the far post, yet an unfortunate deflection off of Ivan Provedel’s back ended up in the back of the net. The visitors’ celebration was short-lived as Petko Hristov gave Spezia another lead only two minutes on.
However, Lazio picked themselves up from another shock. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic slotted home a well-placed effort from inside the box to level the score midway through the second half before Francesco Acerbi’s last-gasp strike completed the turnaround.
Having arrested a two-game winless Serie A streak (D1, L1), Lazio have leapfrogged Roma into fifth until tomorrow. Jose Mourinho’s men will have an opportunity to regain the Europa League qualifying spot by beating mid-table Bologna at the Stadio Olimpico.
But in the meantime, Lazio will enjoy themselves following a sensational comeback that could help them forget about a heartbreaking 2-1 home loss to Milan last time out. Sarri hailed his men’s attacking showing in Liguria, though he conceded they made too many errors at the back.
“I think we played a very good game, we created many chances, but also unfortunately made mistakes that kept the game in the balance,” Sarri told Sky Sport Italia, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
“We went behind three times and never lost our organisation, so that is positive, but if you make errors like that then it becomes difficult to get a result against opponents of a higher level.
“This evening one of the counter-attacks was basically one we started ourselves with a back-pass, the other two were from set plays. We made mistakes, these were not tactical situations at fault.
“To be honest, I would prefer to concede fewer goals. It was a mix of transforming the defensive system entirely and many individual errors.”