(Football news) Lazio thrashed AC Milan with a brilliant 4-0 home victory on Tuesday, extending the Rossoneri’s winless run to five games in all competitions. Goals from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Mattia Zaccagni, Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson were enough to send Maurizio Sarri’s side into third place in the Serie A standings as they are one point behind Milan and 13 off the leaders Napoli.
Milan’s recent run of poor form continued after they were hammered 3-0 by their city rivals Internazionale to lose the Italian Super Cup last Wednesday. They also crashed out of the Coppa Italia in the last 16 against Torino last week as Pioli’s side are going through a rough time. In the first half, Milinkovic-Savic put Lazio in the lead after four minutes when he took a low shot into the bottom-left corner after Zaccagni set him up with an inch perfect cross. Anderson could have scored a quick-fire second in the 36th minute but the pass he received from Pedro was slightly too powerful for the Brazilian.
Zaccagni did score a second goal two minutes later, after midfielder Adam Marusic hit the post the Italian followed up with a tap-in from close range. Milan had a chance to pull one goal back into the second half, but midfielder Ismael Bennacer’s powerful free kick went inches wide of the post. Lazio, who were without their talisman striker Ciro Immobile, who has scored seven goals in Serie A this season. The flying Eagles did make it 3-0 from the spot as Luis Alberto scored from penalty for a foul by Pierre Kalulu on Spaniard Pedro.
Lazio drilled the final nail in the coffin as Anderson wrapped up the scoring for them in the 75th minute when he calmly converted Luis Alberto’s cross from the edge of the box for his sixth Serie A goal and fourth goal in consecutive games in all competitions. The mood in the Lazio camp and stadium were buoyant with Milinkovic-Savic not ruling out a title charge.Lazio now hosts Fiorentina on Sunday whereas Milan face Sassuolo in a must win game,their title charge to retain their title is slowly but steadily coming to an end.
“There are many things not working (at Milan) at the moment,” coach Stefano Pioli said. “There’s mentality, tactical issues because we conceded on some situations that we certainly should have read differently.”
“Why not? If we play like this against the reigning champions, why can’t we do that?,” Milinkovic Savic when asked whether Lazio could target a first title since 1999-2000. “If we play like the last three wins, we can really go far. There are always those moments when we drop off, but we are trying to limit those as much as possible.”
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