After a hard-fought fixture to close off an exhilarating week 27 of the Serie A, it was Lazio who fell short in a 2-1 defeat to Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico.
The fixture between both Serie A giants tilted in the Partenopei’s favour at first as Lorenzo Insigne curled an absolute stunner into the right low-corner into the back of the net from outside the box after having the ball laid off by Elif Elmas to obtain the breakthrough.
Just as it seemed like Spalletti’s men were in the clear to seal all three points away from home, the Spaniard Pedro put his mark onto the game after coming off the bench as he struck an outstanding half-volley from a long way out passed David Ospina to hand the Biancocelesti a late-equalizer.
In the end, Spalletti’s side showed composure and resilience as Insigne cut swiftly towards the inside at played the ball for Fabian Ruiz. The central midfielder showed no signs of hesitation and scored a thunderous last-gasp curler into the bottom-left corner in order to clinch all three points and launch Napoli to the top of the table in joint first with Milan.
Following Lazio’s disappointing defeat to the Azzurri, Sarri spoke to Dazn about his sides overall display at the Stadio Olimpico this evening: “It was a good performance, we dominated the first half and our regret was only being at 0-0. That means we went behind, got back on track, but then were punished by a naïve error at the 93rd minute.
“We went to triple up the marking on the wing, allowing them to counter and we were badly set out in defense. However, if you think that three months ago Napoli were untouchable for us, but tonight we were on more than level terms and had more scoring opportunities than they did.
“The objective is to keep improving our performances, to do as well as possible and learn to read situations better so that we can transform those potential situations into results. It’s a matter of details, because we played well tonight and shouldn’t have lost.”
As it stands, Lazio currently sitting in seventh place with a total of 44 points, only a one-point gap separating the Biancocelesti from fifth-placed Atalanta.
After suffering a difficult defeat at home against Napoli, Sarri hopes that his men can regain focus as they prepare to face Cagliari in a vital fixture in order to keep their aspirations of attaining an Europa League qualifying-spot alive.