Serie A | Lazio 2-2 Fiorentina: Dramatic Pedro penalty after controversial decisions
It was a dramatic and controversial night in Rome, as Lazio refused to give in after penalty rows and Pedro converted in stoppages for a 2-2 draw with Fiorentina.
Tijjani Noslin and Adam Marusic were suspended after the fiery defeat to Napoli, with Gil Patric injured, Boulaye Dia and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru at AFCON. Matteo Guendouzi started, despite the fact he is set to join Fenerbahce next week. Moise Kean returned to the Fiorentina XI after his last-gasp winner against Cremonese, but Edin Dzeko, Jacopo Fazzini and Tariq Lamptey were still out of action.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
David De Gea stuck out a boot to parry the Toma Basic angled drive, then Gustav Isaksen wasted a promising counter-attack with his weak pass for Cancellieri, allowing Robin Gosens to intercept.
There was an even bigger chance on the resulting corner, as Mario Gila saw his header cleared off the line by Nicolò Fagioli, then it came back to Gila and Rolando Mandragora performed another goal-line clearance.
Lazio were furious on the following corner moments later, as Gila seemed to be pulled back by Marin Pongracic after another Fagioli clearance on Alessio Romagnoli, but the referee and VAR waved away strong penalty appeals.
The Aquile’s luck went from bad to worse, as Basic limped off with an injury, making way for Matias Vecino.
Albert Gudmundsson tested Ivan Provedel from a tight angle at the dawn of the second half, but Lazio finally made their dominance count.
A poor clearance was controlled by Danilo Cataldi, who flicked it up past a defender, completed a give and go with Vecino, and fired in from nine yards.
However, Fiorentina equalised just four minutes later when Fagioli dinked a ball over the top for Gosens to control acrobatically, placing the angled drive past Provedel into the far bottom corner.
There was another mad scramble on a Lazio set play, as De Gea made the double save on Gila’s header and the Romagnoli follow-up from point-blank range.
Manuel Lazzari was another new addition to the injury list, but substitute Kean wasted a good chance by drilling wide on a free kick routine.
The controversy continued to grow late on when VAR called the referee to the monitor for Gila’s challenge on Gudmundsson, who seemed to drag his foot to seek contact. Nonetheless, the penalty was given and Gudmundsson converted, despite Provedel getting a hand to it.
It still wasn’t over, as the referee did spot Pietro Comuzzo’s shirt tug on Zaccagni and pointed to the spot in stoppages, where Pedro kept his cool to convert past De Gea.
Lazio 2-2 Fiorentina
Cataldi 52 (L), Gosens 56 (F), Gudmundsson pen 89 (F), Pedro pen 95 (L)
Player statistic
| 20' | Marin Pongracic | |||
| 21' | Robin Gosens | |||
| Matteo Cancellieri | 26' |
| Danilo Cataldi (Assist: Danilo Cataldi) |
52' | |||
| 55' | Fabiano Parisi | |||
| 56' | Robin Gosens (Assist: Nicolò Fagioli) | |||
| 71' | Nicolò Fagioli | |||
| Mattia Zaccagni | 83' | |||
| 89' | Albert Gudmundsson | |||
| Luca Pellegrini | 90+1' | |||
| Pedro | 90+5' | |||
| 90+8' | Hans Nicolussi Caviglia |

