Serie A | Lazio 0-2 Atalanta: Dea conquer the Stadio Olimpico

Atalanta continue their climb up the Serie A table with this important victory away to Lazio, as Ederson’s penalty and a Nicola Zalewski curler conquered the Olimpico.

These teams will meet again in the Coppa Italia semi-final, with the second leg scheduled for March 4, as the Aquile beat holders Bologna on penalties on Wednesday. Alessio Romagnoli was suspended here, with Pedro, Mattia Zaccagni, Toma Basic, Manuel Lazzari and Samuel Gigot injured, so Daniel Maldini faced his former club. La Dea lost Charles De Ketelaere for at least a month following knee surgery, with Gianluca Scamacca not fully fit either, but Marten de Roon and Honest Ahanor returned from bans. The stadium was again mostly empty, as Lazio fans continue their protest.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Ivan Provedel got it very wrong when rushing off his line to close down Lorenzo Bernasconi, who was able to put in the cross for Nikola Krstovic, but Oliver Provstgaard got back for a decisive goal-line clearance in an empty net.

Kenneth Taylor couldn’t get enough power on his acrobatic volley, while Ahanor nodded a corner wide of the far post.

Ahanor was struggling to deal with Gustav Isaksen and already on an early yellow card, so Raffaele Palladino hauled the 17-year-old off after just 25 minutes to introduce Sead Kolasinac.

Lazio remained aggressive and came very close moments later when Daniel Maldini pulled back from the by-line for Taylor, whose strike was fingertipped onto the near post by Marco Carnesecchi.

The game changed just before half-time when Davide Zappacosta completed a give and go to break down the right and his pull-back from the by-line was blocked by Danilo Cataldi’s raised arm as he came sliding in. The referee spotted it in real time without needing VAR, and Ederson sent Provedel the wrong way to put Atalanta in front.

Mario Gila went off with a knock just above the knee and Lazio also had penalty appeals for a potential Zappacosta handball after the restart, but Nuno Tavares was offside in the build-up and therefore irrelevant.

They had a huge double chance moments later, as on a short corner Carnesecchi made a one-handed save on the Tijjani Noslin flicked header, then Adam Marusic couldn’t keep the rebound down at the back post.

Instead, Atalanta doubled their advantage with ex-Roma talent Zalewski, who gathered outside the area and bent a wonderful right-foot strike into the far bottom corner.

Carnesecchi was ready for the Maldini free kick, but Atalanta had a problem when Raspadori hobbled off with a thigh problem at the 86^th minute with all the substitutions completed, so they finished with 10 men.

In this scenario, Lazio threatened to get back into the game with Petar Ratkov’s header from a corner clipping the upright. Ratkov also hit a fresh-air shot from eight yards, although his blushes were spared by Boulaye Dia’s offside.

Atalanta temporarily go into sixth place, although Como have a game in hand.

Lazio 0-2 Atalanta

Ederson pen 41 (A), Zalewski 60 (A)