Immobile’s two goals decide Lazio’s Champions League win over Celtic

The Champions League Group E match between Lazio and Celtic at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on Tuesday. Both teams struggled for a long time, not only in the end. However, Ciro Immobile came on in the 61st minute and scored two goals in the final minutes to decide the home team’s victory. Maurizio Sarri’s charges thus came close to progressing to the eighth round.

The first shot came in the fourth minute, but Isaksen’s effort flew into the middle of the net and into Joe Hart’s gloves. His counterpart Ivan Provedel defused a similar finish by Furuhashi moments later. Then, in the seventh minute, experienced Celtic goalkeeper Hart handled an awkward situation after a corner kick with little difficulty.

At the end of the opening ten minutes, Felipe Anderson ran onto Guendouzi’s neat centre behind the defence but his header was inaccurate. Two minutes later, Luis Alberto fired a long-range shot, but it went over the crossbar. After an initial active shooting phase, the game settled down.

The Scottish team, which entered the fifth group game with just one point and so desperately needed to succeed, was unable to come up with anything going forward. The Romans didn’t attack too dangerously in the rest of the first half, but Luis Alberto forced another intervention from Hart five minutes before the break.

Three minutes after the break, Furuhashi’s shot on the ground just missed the far post. Castellanos then sent his header high over the bar after a corner kick. With exactly an hour played, Isaksen shot just wide of the right post.

The Lazio players continued their unsuccessful attempts, for example Marusic directed the ball well wide of the target in the 67th minute. Twenty minutes before the end of normal time, Provedel had to intervene for the first time in a long time after a corner against a Carter-Vickers header.

The game also lacked the necessary pace and matching quality in the second half. The substitutions, which both coaches, Roma’s Maurizio Sarri and Glasgow’s Brendan Rodgers, resorted to in succession, did not change that.

Hero Immobile

The match was slowly coming to a scoreless end when a goal was scored in the 82nd minute. Offensively, Lazio, playing a little better, were put in front by a goal scorer who came on as a substitute. Ciro Immobile headed a blocked shot by Isaksen beyond the reach of Hart.

Three minutes went by and the speedy Italian striker scored for the second time. He outwitted the defenders with a successful cross and finished to the near post. The best player of the match and, above all, the winner of this less exciting contest was suddenly decided.

The Turkish referee awarded a penalty to Celtic in stoppage time, but after watching the video he eventually called it off. Lazio Rome have ten points after the 2-0 win and if Feyenoord lose to Atlético Madrid in the evening’s clash, they can celebrate their progression to the spring phase of the Champions League.

Source: UEFA, Nova Sport 3