It was a great day for Roman soccer fans on Sunday as Lazio went back to the top of the table with a 3-1 win at Torino and as Roma coasted to a 2-0 home success over Atalanta.
Lazio have been the surprise team of this season and their fourth victory in five matches over Torino took them ahead of Inter Milan and back to the top of the table, for a few hours at least. Inter can regain top spot if they win the Milan derby against AC Milan later on Sunday but even that won’t not dim Lazio coach Delio Rossi’s enjoyment.
“I’m happy to be the coach of players who give their all and play to their best,” he said. “It seemed easy today but Torino played well. I thought in the first half they played better than us but for the rest of the game it was all Lazio.
PHOTO: AP
“We have worked hard and this group can develop and improve as we’re missing important players like [Tommaso] Rocchi and [Francesco] Matuzalem.”
Macedonia striker Goran Pandev gave Lazio the lead on the half hour following some shoddy defending by the hosts. Former Birmingham forward Mauro Zarate tried to bundle his way through the backline, who were all drawn towards the Argentine but the ball bobbled free to the unmarked Pandev who shot shot home past Matteo Sereni.
Torino did not lie down, though, and Elvis Abbruscato produced a moment of magic moments later that came within a whisker of levelling matters, but although his delicate chip beat Juan Pablo Carrizo in the Lazio goal, it came back off the crossbar. Serie A top scorer Zarate sealed the win on 63 minutes, beating a man and then firing a stunning shot from 25 yards that curled away from Sereni and into the top corner. He then added a penalty seven minutes from time after Sereni had been harshly judged to have fouled Christian Brocchi in the box.
Sereni was also ridiculously sent-off, though, and Torino lost their discipline with Francesco Pratali also seeing red late on. However, the nine men scored their consolation deep into injury time through a re-taken Nicola Amoruso penalty, that was also harshly awarded.
In the capital, last season’s runners-up AS Roma were desperate for three points against Atalanta, having had a poor start to the season that saw them win only one of their first four matches. They welcomed back French defender Philippe Mexes to partner Cristian Panucci at center-half but there was only a place on the bench for club captain Francesco Totti.
Panucci opened the scoring after 17 minutes with a goal from a corner that went in via a deflection.
Then on 31 minutes French winger Jeremy Menez played a ball in from the left that took two deflections and wrong-footed the defense, allowing Montenegro forward Mirko Vucinic to turn sharply and fire home smartly.
Roma coach Luciano Spalletti admitted his team has had to regroup after their poor start.
“We’ve had to refresh things bit by bit and start rebuilding from ground zero,” he said.
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