Serie A | Lazio 2-0 Lecce: Guendouzi and Noslin enough for precious victory

Matteo Guendouzi and Tijjani Noslin goals proved enough for Lazio to get the better of Lecce, but they had numerous chances, including a disallowed goal and rattling the woodwork.

The injury crisis continued for Maurizio Sarri, who was missing Taty Castellanos, Samuel Gigot, Matteo Cancellieri and Nicolò Rovella, though at least Nuno Tavares and Elseid Hysaj recovered for a spot on the bench. The Salentini missed Balthazar Pierret and Gaby Jean for this trip.

As part of the campaign on violence against women, both sets of players wore special shirts with the names of important women in their lives. It was also the debut of the new eagle mascot, named Flaminia, but few were there to see it due to a fan protest over a banner dispute.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Riccardo Sottil had the ball in the back of the net after six minutes with the aid of a big deflection, but it didn’t count because the referee awarded a free kick for his hand on Gustav Isaksen’s face.

The hosts dominated possession, Guendouzi’s weak finish easy for Wladimiro Falcone, the goalkeeper having to stick out a leg for a tough reaction save on the Boulaye Dia effort.

Lazio finally opened the scoring when Toma Basic pulled back from the left by-line and Guendouzi slipped as he went to volley from 12 yards, giving the ball a strange loop that wrong-footed Falcone into the near bottom corner.

Dia had a couple of attempts charged down by Kialonda Gaspar, while Guendouzi bent a left-foot finish wide from the edge of the box and Falcone had to rush off his line to push a Mattia Zaccagni pass off the feet of Basic.

Danilo Cataldi went off with a calf issue at half time, replaced by Matias Vecino in the Aquile midfield.

Dia had the ball in the net on 51 minutes when robbing Tiago Gabriel to go clear on goal, but it was disallowed following the VAR review for a shove on the Lecce defender.

Falcone made a desperate double save moments later on the Adam Marusic header and Isaksen follow-up, then Basic blasted over on the resulting corner.

Isaksen pulled an angled drive across the face of goal from six yards, but it remained only 1-0 and Lecce started to gain confidence, Tete Morente shinning from a promising position and Tiago Gabriel firing straight at Ivan Provedel on a Danilo Veiga pull-back.

There was an extraordinary moment on 72 minutes when Lazio hit the same upright twice in 10 seconds, first Guendouzi from the edge of the area, then Zaccagni when slipping on the follow-up.

Mario Gila also had a muscular issue, replaced by Patric on his return after several months out injured.

Lazio finally managed to lock down the victory deep into stoppages when Tijjani Noslin ran onto a long Provedel goal kick that had bounced, held off Tiago Gabriel, and forced another big Falcone save, but this time he was able to nod in the rebound. It was Noslin’s first goal in over a year.

Lazio 2-0 Lecce

Guendouzi 29 (La), Noslin 96 (La)