Second spot confirmed

Simon Basten

Apr 2, 2023

3 min read

2022-23 Season

Game 28, Serie A

Sunday, April 2, 2023

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U-Power Stadium, Monza

Monza Lazio 0-2

By winning at Monza Lazio confirm second place and leave Milan four points behind and Inter and Roma five.

The team

Maurizio Sarri put Manuel Lazzari in as right back instead of the suspended Adam Marusic and this was the only change compared to the team that won the derby. Ciro Immobile was available but not at 100% so better not to risk him at least in the beginning of the game.

The match

It was s a beautiful sunny day and for the first ten minutes the players seemed to want to appreciate the weather rather than play football. It looked this match was going to be a classic goalless draw with nothing much happening. Mistake.

In the 12th minute Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to Felipe Anderson who chested the ball to Luis Alberto. The Spaniard passed to his compatriot Pedro who from outside the box tried a curving shot which was just a little too high.

A minute later Luis Alberto to Mattia Zaccagni that went off on the left as usual. He saw Felipe Anderson in the box and passed to the Brazilian who slipped, the ball went through and while the Monza defenders were wondering which one of them would take care of it, in came Pedro that put it behind Michele Di Gregorio to make it 1-0 for Lazio.

In the 16th minute Pedro on the right to Zaccagni in the box but his shot was parried into corner. Two minutes later Patrick Ciurria crossed into the box and Stefano Sensi’s header was wide by a whisker. In the 23rd minute a one-two Felipe Anderson Luis Alberto gave the Spaniard a chance to shoot from outside the penalty box but his shot was only a fraction wide.

Ten minutes later Sensi to Ciurria who crossed into the box for Andrea Petagna’s header. Ivan Provedel was miraculous. In the 35th minute Nicolò Rovella tried from outside the box but his shot was wide just like Luis Alberto’s 8 minutes later.

Second half

Monza started the second half with a number of fouls and in the first ten minutes they received four yellow cards. On the last of these fouls Milinkovic-Savic took the free kick and from 25 metres curved the ball over the Monza wall and into the net. 2-0 for Lazio. With that goal the big Serb became the all time foreign player with more goals in the history of Lazio. His 65th goal, overtaking Goran Pandev’s 64 .

Lazio slowed down the match and Monza, despite having the majority of possession, could not break Lazio’s defence.

In the second half Monza brought on Andrea Colpani, Danny Mota and Valentin Antov in the 59th minute for Rovella, Petagna and Marlon, Christian Gytkjaer for Gianluca Caprari in the 71st and Andrea Barberis for José Machin in the 80th. Lazio substituted Pedro with Immobile in the 65th minute, Matias Vecino and Toma Basic for Danilo Cataldi and Luis Alberto in the 71st, and Luca Pellegrini for Lazzari in the 83rd. Pellegrini finally debuted in Serie A with the Lazio jersey.

The match ended with a chance each. In a counter attack in the 90th minute Colpani shot from outside the box, Provedel saved and Gytkjaer hit the tap in over the crossbar. In the fourth minute of injury time, Zaccagni went off on the left and from near the goal attempted an impossible shot that Di Gregorio saved with difficulty.

Great win for Lazio, Milinkovic-Savic was looking good after a couple of bad months, and with the return of Ciro as well as the lack of a mid week feature, there was room to be optimist.

Who played for Monza

Di Gregorio; Donati, Mari, Marlon (59' Antov), Ciurria, Machin (81' Barberis), Rovella (60' Colpani), Carlos Augusto; Sensi, Caprari (71' Gytkjaer); Petagna (59' Mota)

Substitutes: Cragno, Sorrentino, Antov, Carboni, Birindelli, Ranocchia, Valoti, D'Alessandro, Vignato

Manager: Palladino

Who played for Lazio

Provedel; Lazzari (83' Pellegrini), Casale, Romagnoli, Hysaj; Milinkovic-Savic, Cataldi (71' Vecino), Luis Alberto (71' Basic), Pedro (65' Immobile), Felipe Anderson, Zaccagni