STADIO PAOLO MAZZA (FERRARA) – A dominant second-half showing from SPAL saw them come from behind to defeat Lazio 2-1on Sunday afternoon for their first home points of the season.
It was a long day’s work for both in Ferrara, with the heat and VAR leading to long delays in the action that saw over 103 minutes played.
The international break has come and gone since Lazio’s Derby della Capitale draw with Roma, but it only took them ten minutes in Emilia-Romagna to pick up where they left off as Felipe Caiceido had his low strike bounce off the woodwork and away when it had looked destined for the bottom corner.
A five-minute stoppage then followed as VAR was consulted for an incident in the SPAL area. Gianpaolo Calvarese listened as the VAR team checked the incident for a prolonged spell, before further riling the hosts’ fans by then going to check things himself. Eventually, it was deemed that Nenad Tomovic had handled the ball.
Ciro Immobile stepped up and, as he always does against the Biancazzurri, found the net. That strike made it seven goals in five games when facing SPAL.
Leonardo Semplici’s side were a different team after the break though and they dominated. A series of long shots and corners came the hosts’ way which allowed Andrea Petagna to deservedly level the scores.
One of the many crosses fell his way and he, rather uncharacteristically, showed grace and an acrobatic side to fire a scissor-kick into the bottom corner to extend his own good record against Lazio to score his fourth in six games.
SPAL stayed on top though, even with Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Joaquin Correa arriving and they got their winner. A late break looked to have broken down when a loose ball broke for Jasmin Kurtic who stayed calm and rolled the ball into the net with Thomas Strakosha helpless.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com