Lazio crush Verona to fuel hopes of European football

Lazio produced a superb second half display to dismantle Verona and end their five-game unbeaten run in emphatic fashion.

Alessandro Matri gave Lazio the lead on the stroke of half-time and Lazio never looked back as they raced into a 3-0 lead with 21 minutes to play.

But Verona clawed their way back into the contest with two goals in seven minutes, courtesy of Leandro Greco and Luca Toni.

That's as close as Verona got to the Biancocelesti, who eased any concerns of a Verona fightback with a fourth through Keita, eight minutes from time, before substitute Antonio Candreva's late penalty put the gloss on the win.

Lazio had scraped only two points from their previous three Serie A games, without scoring a single goal, and coach Stefano Pioli was relieved that his side rediscovered their goalscoring form.

“We had been missing the goals, as recently we didn’t finish off the wealth of possession. We did well tonight, I liked the team and it’s just a pity about that late lapse in concentration, as we cannot afford that in Serie A,” the coach said.

“As long as it’s mathematically possible to qualify for Europe, we have to believe. Why think otherwise? We can win many games and put together many points, but logically it won’t be easy to close in on the sides above us.

“It was a delicate job to work on the psychology of such young players, but that is also an enjoyable part of the profession for a coach.

“The squad is pretty young, but also includes a World Cup winner, a World Cup Finalist and many internationals. Unfortunately we’re paying the price for a poor November, when we got one point in six games, because apart from Juventus and Napoli we fought it out with everyone.

“We are trailing, but I asked my players to achieve something great and notch up a series of positive results, then we’ll see where we end up.”

Last season Lazio snatched a surprise third-place finish and were close to second for long periods.

“Last year we played exceptional football and any comparison with this term is going to be negative because we lack consistency.

“We have the quality to achieve great results and qualify for Europe. We just tend to lose concentration and did it again tonight for five minutes.”