Friday, March 29

European roundup: Pedro helps Lazio go top; Lille bounce back | european football club


Latium‘s Felipe Anderson, Luis Alberto and Pedro secured a 3-1 home victory over international that took their side top of Serie A on Friday as the visitors dropped their first points of the season on coach Simone Inzaghi’s return to his old club. Lazio had two great chances through their captain Ciro Immobile and a third from striker Mattia Zaccagni before Anderson, who had been perfectly set up by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, put the hosts ahead with a 40th-minute header at the Stadio Olimpico.

The visitors equalized from a free-kick as the defender Denzel Dumfries gave the ball to the unmarked Lautaro Martínez who netted from close range in the 51st minute. A minute later, Inter went close to taking the lead when Dumfries got his head to Federico Dimarco’s high cross and felt the ball bouncing off the ground just in front of the Lazio goalkeeper Ivan Provedel, who managed to tip it over the bar.

However, the substitute Luis Alberto restored the lead for Lazio with a sublime strike from distance in the 75th minute, and Pedro made it 3-1 four minutes from time.

“We’ve been sending some good signals lately, as we go through periods of being under pressure without actually risking much at the back,” the Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri said afterwards. “This team has gained in solidity and organization, so we are capable of beating anyone on the day, but our problem has always been consistency.”

“The defeat stings because of the way it happened,” Inter’s coach Simone Inzaghi said. “Luis Alberto’s goal broke the game. At 1-1 we had Dumfries’ chance that would have changed things.“

Also Read  Biden seeks to paint GOP as 'extreme'

Lazio are provisionally top with seven points from three games, with Inter a point behind in fourth place. In the early evening game Udinese beat the bottom side Monza 2-1. The hosts took the lead on 32 minutes through Andrea Colpani’s goal but Beto soon equalized for Udinese and the Spurs loanee Destiny Udogie sealed the points with 13 minutes left.

Lille’s Jonathan Bamba doubles his side’s lead over Ajaccio. Photograph: Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP/Getty Images

Lille bounced back from a humiliating 7-1 thumping by Paris St Germain last weekend with a 3-1 win at newly promoted Ajaccio on Friday – their second win of the Ligue 1 season. Yusuf Yazici’s breathtaking volley gave the visitors a 17th-minute lead, and that was followed by strikes for Jonathan Bamba near half-time and the defender Tiago Djalo midway through the second period.

Jonathan David hit the post with a late penalty to deny Lille a fourth goal after Cyrille Bayala had pulled one back for Ajaccio when Lille failed to clear a corner six minutes from time. Lille are fourth with seven points, two behind leaders PSG who host AS Monaco on Sunday, while Ajaccio are third-bottom on one point and still looking for a first victory.

In Spain’s La Liga there were 1-0 wins for Celtic vigo at Girona and for 10-man Real Betis at home to Osasuna. In the Bundesliga, Freiburg beat Bochum 1-0, leaving the visitors bottom of the table with no points after four games.


www.theguardian.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *