Although Lazio has already qualified for the Europa League knockout stage, their 2-0 loss on Thursday to Apollon Limassol really made Lazio president Claudio Lotito mad. Their clash against the bottom of the table Chievo Verona seemed like a match for Lazio to redeem themselves as well as putting some distance between them and AC Milan for that 4th place Champions League spot. Lucas Leiva was not included in the lineup as Milan Badelj took his place as the defensive midfielder. Another change to the lineup included Joaquin Correa starting as a second striker in the place of Felipe Caicedo.
The first half kicked off and the Biancocelesti did not look up to the task of winning this match; with Chievo dominating most of the half. Lazio really paid for their lack of effort about 25 minutes into the match when a lovely through ball by Valter Birsa found 39-year-old Sergio Pellissier who slotted the ball past Thomas Strakosha. Inzaghi’s men struggled to score for the rest of the half.
The second half of this match looked much more promising as Lazio already started causing problems for Chievo and were frequently in their defensive third. After constantly missing chances, shot after shot by Biancocelesti players, and, save after save by Stefano Sorrentino, they finally equalized as Ciro Immobile netted his ninth of the Serie A TIM season. Shortly after the equalizer, Immobile came close to completing the comeback but unfortunately was denied by the post. Lazio struggled to find the game winner despite having all the momentum in the second half.
All in all, even after 30 minutes of regulation and stoppage time since Immobile’s equalizer, Inzaghi’s men couldn’t snatch the three points from this game and have now dropped another two points for the third consecutive Serie A match in a row. This now puts them out of the top four as AC Milan have passed them. They currently sit in 5th place in the Serie A table with 24 points.
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