Lazio smash Genoa

With the score tied at 1-1 following a dreadful opening 45 minutes, a Hernanes brace and a strike from Tomasso Rocchi put the Rome side 4-1 up, with Antonio Floro Flores pulling one back late on for Genoa.

Lazio go fourth on 63 points, although Udinese on 62 can back rise above them if they draw at Chievo on Sunday.

Genoa stay 10th, now unable to come higher than ninth and unlikely to finish lower than 12th.

A terrible first half was brightened up by early goals for both sides, although they came from slack defending.

Lazio defender Giuseppe Biava was left unmarked at a seventh-minute corner, powering a header past Eduardo as a static Genoa defence looked on.

The visitors levelled six minutes later as, following a spell of pressure that saw Lazio totally back off the visitors, the home defence failed to react when Fernando Muslera blocked Mauro Boselli’s low shot: Rodrigo Palacio was spare to finish.

Otherwise nothing of note happened apart from a pair of poor Rocchi crosses as both sides played out the half at a pedestrian pace worthy of a pre-season friendly or end-of-campaign dead rubber: one would never had known that Lazio had Champions League qualification at stake.

Both sides left the pitch to jeers and the second half begun with a great deal more intent, Rocchi firing just over and Juraj Kucka denied by a good Muslera save within two minutes of the restart.

On 52 minutes Rocchi put the hosts ahead with a cool low finish through Eduardo’s legs after springing the offside trap to race past Dario Dainelli. It was a superb long pass from Cristian Ledesma but Dainelli should have done better.

Whatever Edy Reja said at half-time worked as three minutes later it was 3-1 when Ledesma again put in a killer ball, this time a cross from the right that Brazilian midfielder Hernanes met with a super header inside the right-hand post.

Lazio had awoken from their slumber and they extended their lead further when Hernanes placed a low drive into the bottom right after a superb run and cut-back from Mauro Zarate on the left.

Genoa were well adrift and responded by throwing on forward Mattia Destro, but Lazio kept coming as Rocchi saw a shot deflected wide.

The latter stages saw the hosts sit deep and look for the break as Genoa toiled without threatening until Floro Flores forced a smart low stop from Muslera.

Floro Flores pulled one back late on, diverting Domenico Criscito's shot past the stranded Muslera after a corner, but it was a comfortable win in the end and one that gives Lazio a fighting chance of sneaking into the Champions League places, with Udinese's fate in their own hands ahead of the penultimate game of their season.