Serie A | Napoli 0-2 Lazio: Sarri puts final nail in Scudetto dream
Napoli really have abandoned Scudetto dreams after their first Serie A home defeat of the season, as despite a Vanja Milinkovic-Savic penalty save, Matteo Cancellieri and Toma Basic gave Lazio victory.
The Partenopei were still smarting after the draw at Parma practically ended their Scudetto ambitions. Amir Rrahmani returned to the bench, with Sam Beukema preferred to Juan Jesus, but Romelu Lukaku, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, David Neres and Antonio Vergara were still out of action. Lazio weren’t in much better shape, as Adam Marusic, Ivan Provedel, Nicolò Rovella, Samuel Gigot and Alessio Furlanetto didn’t make the trip, with Daniel Maldini back in the squad. Maurizio Sarri faced his old club and also kept an eye on Wednesday’s Coppa Italia semi-final with Atalanta.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It was an aggressive start from Lazio and they opened the scoring early on when Kenneth Taylor pulled back from the left by-line for Matteo Cancellieri to sweep into the far bottom corner first-time from eight yards.
Toma Basic and Matteo Politano tested the goalkeepers, but Mario Gila did just enough to stop Scott McTominay nodding in from six yards on a Politano cross.
Alessio Romagnoli made a decisive sliding tackle on Rasmus Hojlund when sent through by Kevin De Bruyne, but Lazio earned a penalty when Noslin took advantage of a lucky ricochet off Alessandro Buongiorno to go on the counter, shrugged off Beukema, and was bundled over from behind by Stanislav Lobotka.
However, Zaccagni became the latest victim of Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, who parried his third penalty of the season, and then the Lazio captain slipped to fire the rebound over the bar.
Milinkovic-Savic was decisive again with a tricky save as Cancellieri’s strike went through a defender’s legs, and Noslin couldn’t keep the rebound down.
Nuno Tavares forced another Milinkovic-Savic save with an angled drive when sent sprinting down the left, and Kenneth Taylor drilled just wide straight after the restart.
Lazio did double their lead when Nuno Tavares sprinted down the left and Cancellieri stumbled on what should’ve been a tap-in, but the ricochet fell kindly for teammate Toma Basic to sweep in from 10 yards.
Substitute Alisson Santos threatened to pull one back moments later, but his powerful angled drive thumped the outside of the near post.
Nuno Tavares failed to turn in the Noslin roll across from six yards under pressure from Miguel Gutierrez, and McTominay’s scorcher was deflected over, as Napoli remarkably suffered their fourth consecutive home defeat to Lazio. It was also their first home loss of the Serie A season.
Napoli 0-2 Lazio
Cancellieri 6 (L), Basic 57 (L)
Saved penalty: Zaccagni 31 (L)
Player statistic
| 6' | Matteo Cancellieri (Assist: Kenneth Taylor) | |||
| Stanislav Lobotka | 29' | |||
| 31' |  |
Mattia Zaccagni | ||
| 33' | Danilo Cataldi |
| 57' |  |
Toma Basic (Assist: Matteo Cancellieri) | ||
| 60' | Kenneth Taylor | |||
| 90+1' |  |
Boulaye Dia |
