Lazio tied (1-1) on their visit to Udinese and missed the opportunity to overtake Atalanta, fifth-placed, and get closer to the Champions League positions on matchday 26 of Serie A.
The men led by the Italian Maurizio Sarri presented themselves with the opportunity to attack fifth place and reduce the distance with Juventus, but a Udinese that is still fighting to definitively get away from relegation prevented it.
Deulofeu opens the scoring
The Argentine Nehuén Pérez headed a cross from his compatriot Nahuel Molina at the feet of the Catalan Gerard Deulofeu, who opened the scoring for the locals before five minutes were up. Udinese felt comfortable and imposed their idea of the game on a diminished Lazio after the Europa League match against Porto on Thursday and with the Italian Ciro Immobile missing due to a gastric problem.
Pedro, relieved of Immobile, is injured
Sarri’s men noted the loss of their captain and top scorer in the championship in attack. In addition, everything went against the ‘laziale’, because in the 23rd minute the Canarian Pedro Rodríguez, who this Sunday acted as a false nine in the face of Immobile’s withdrawal, left the pitch injured and is a doubt for the second leg this Thursday against Porto.
However, Brazilian Felipe Anderson leveled the match just before heading into the locker room tunnel with a header from a free kick from the side.
Lazio came out more plugged in in the second half and enjoyed several clear chances that they failed to convert. Little by little, with the changes, Udinese took back part of the control and in the last minutes they besieged their rival and were even able to win the match with a shot from Molina that went directly into the top corner.
With this tie, Lazio remains sixth, in the Conference League place, while Udinese also misses the opportunity to overtake two direct rivals and remains 16th, four points behind Cagliari, although with a game less played.