PLAYER RATINGS | Lazio 1-0 Roma | OneFootball

It was a win for Lazio in the Derby della Capitale as Maurizio Sarri’s side beat Roma 1-0, thanks to Mattia Zaccagni’s ninth goal of the season in Serie A.

The Biancocelesti have won both derbies in Serie A this season for the first time since 2012 and now they sit momentarily in second place, five points clear of the fifth place occupied by Roma bouncing back from the elimination in Conference League that came last Thursday.

Among the many possible adjectives at disposal to describe the game, ‘nervous’ is probably the best one.

The peak of the tension was reached in the first half when referee Davide Massa showed a second yellow card to Roma defender Roger Ibanez at the 32nd minute, leaving the Giallorossi down to 10 men with more than a hour still to be played.

Few minutes later, an altercation started and it involved Roma goalkeepers trainer Nuno Santos and this brought about two more red cards for the staff members of each team.

Zaccagni broke the deadlock with what then turned out to be the match winning goal in the 65th minute, when he received the ball wide in the box and from a tight angle he then found the opposite bottom corner curling the ball.

Roma believed to have found the equaliser just moments after Lazio’s goal but Nicolò Casale’s own goal was disallowed as VAR found Chris Smalling in an offside position, leaving the Giallorossi with their third defeat in the last four Serie A games.

Player ratings:

Lazio: (4-3-3): Provedel (6); Marusic (6,5), Casale (6,5), Romagnoli (6,5), Hysaj (6,5); Milinkovic-Savic (7), Cataldi (6,5), Luis Alberto (7); Pedro (6,5), Felipe Anderson (6,5), Zaccagni (7).

Substitutes: Cancellieri (-); Basic (-).

Roma (3-4-2-1): Rui Patricio (6); Mancini (5,5), Smalling (5,5), Ibanez (4); Zalewski (5,5), Cristante (5,5), Wijnaldum (5,5), Spinazzola (5); Dybala (5), Pellegrini (5); Belotti (5).

Substitutes: Llorente (5); Matic (5,5); Abraham (5); El Shaarawy (-); Solbakken (-).

Andrea Agostinelli | GIFN