Mon | Dec 16, 2024

Atalanta, Lazio warm up for CL with wins in Serie A

Published:Saturday | March 13, 2021 | 12:23 AM
Lazio’s Luis Alberto and Crotone’s Jacopo Petricone (right) compete for the ball during a Serie A match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome’s Olympic stadium, yesterday.
AP
Lazio’s Luis Alberto and Crotone’s Jacopo Petricone (right) compete for the ball during a Serie A match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome’s Olympic stadium, yesterday.

ROME (AP):

Atalanta and Lazio warmed up for Champions League games with victories in Serie A yesterday.

Atalanta defeated visiting Spezia 3-1 with two goals from Mario Pašalić, while substitute Felipe Caicedo scored a late winner for Lazio to beat last-placed Crotone 3-2.

Atalanta moved into fourth place and the final Champions League spot, while Lazio remained seventh.

Atalanta will try to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit when they visit Real Madrid in the round of 16 on Tuesday. Then Lazio need to make up for a 4-1 first-leg loss when they play at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Luis Muriel also scored for Atalanta, which got all of their goals in the second half.

Roberto Piccoli, who is on loan from Atalanta, pulled one back for Spezia nine minutes from time.

Sergej Milinković-Savić and Luis Alberto also scored for Lazio, while Simy Nwankwo had a brace for Crotone.

“This victory gives us motivation,” Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi said. “We have a game in hand and if we can keep winning we can get back into the top four. There are a lot of points still up for grabs in terms of achieving our goal – getting back into the Champions League.”

With his 10th and 11th goals of the season, Simy matched Obafemi Martins for most goals by a Nigerian in a single Serie A campaign. Martins also scored 11 for Inter Milan in 2004-05.