Luis Alberto has given Lazio the half-time lead, but Sassuolo are furious after their early Giacomo Raspadori goal was disallowed using VAR.
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The Biancocelesti had gone from Scudetto contenders to fighting to keep second place after back-to-back defeats with Milan and Lecce. Patric started his four-match ban for biting an opponent’s arm, Joaquin Correa, Adam Marusic and Senad Lulic were injured, with Lucas Leiva not fit to start and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic passing a fitness test. Sassuolo, on the other hand, had won three on the bounce and still changed 9 out of XI from midweek, welcoming back Filip Djuricic from suspension, missing Gregoire Defrel, Pedro Obiang and Filippo Romagna. They rested Francesco Caputo and Domenico Berardi, giving 20-year-old Giacomo Raspadori his first Serie A start.
Ciro Immobile almost scored within four minutes, prodding inches wide after a Manuel Lazzari pull-back from the right flank.
Sassuolo did have the ball in the net on nine minutes, when Raspadori kept his cool to beat Thomas Strakosha one-on-one. Despite the on-field VAR review showing Marco Parolo tackled Medhi Bourabia to send Raspadori through, the goal was controversially still ruled offside, as the referee judged it to be unintentional rather than playing the ball.
It was end-to-end stuff, as Djuricic’s deflected effort bounced off the bar, then Luis Alberto blasted over from 12 yards on another Lazzari assist.
Lazzari was unstoppable down the right and he created the opening goal, pulling back from the by-line for Luis Alberto, who had a bit of luck to win the ricochet off Manuel Locatelli’s sliding block and fired in from 12 yards.
Boga threatened again, his curler just wide of the top corner from the edge of the area, then another similar attempt deflected beyond Hamed Junior Traore.
Lazio 1-0 Sassuolo (Half-Time)
Luis Alberto 33 (L)
Lazio: Strakosha; Bastos, Acerbi, Radu; Lazzari, Milinkovic-Savic, Parolo, Luis Alberto, J Lukaku; Immobile, Caicedo
Sassuolo: Consigli; Toljan, Marlon, Ferrari, Kyriakopoulos; Bourabia, Djuricic, Locatelli; Traore, Raspadori, Boga
Ref: Di Bello
Raspadori looked to have a goal in his first Sassuolo start, but VAR intervened to disallow it Thoughts on the decision? pic.twitter.com/uj4Q3qH5SP