Lazio crashed out of the Europa League after a 1-0 defeat away to Feyenoord, as their group saw all four teams on eight points, divided by head-to-head record and goal difference.
By finishing third behind Feyenoord and Midtjylland, Lazio will go into the Conference League play-offs.
The group was incredibly balanced going into the final game, the Biancocelesti and Sturm Graz on eight points, Feyenoord and Midtjylland on five. Ciro Immobile was injured and Maurizio Sarri had to rotate the squad ahead of Sunday’s massive Serie A derby with Roma, but Sergej Milinkovic-Savic started as he will be suspended for that clash. Fredrik Bjorkan and Oussama Idrissi missed out, but Feyenoord had their Eredivisie game postponed, so had a full week to prepare for this match.
Danilo Pereira pounced on a Patric slip in the opening 90 seconds to drill just wide, but moments later Felipe Anderson saw his strike fingertipped onto the crossbar.
Felipe Anderson also surged forward from midfield and rolled across for Matteo Cancellieri, whose curler skimmed the far top corner of an empty net.
Dilrosun turned wide in a similar move, while the goalkeeper denied Manuel Lazzari from point-blank range after good work from Milinkovic-Savic and Ivan Provedel’s gloves were stung by a Paixao scorcher.
In a desperate bid to anticipate Lazzari, Hancko was accidentally clattered by his own goalkeeper, and after the restart Felipe Anderson was again denied one-on-one by Justin Bijlow after sprinting from midfield.
Paixao hit the side-netting, but the deadlock was broken in chaotic fashion when substitute Santiago Gimenez controlled a ball over the top with his knee and was quickest to react on the rebound after Patric crashed into Provedel. It was the same player who came off the bench to score twice at the Stadio Olimpico.
As things stood now, all four teams were on eight points, so it’d go down to head-to-head records and goal difference, putting Lazio in third.
Orkun Kocku saw his snapshot from distance take a slight deflection to clip the outside of the far post, while Pedro went down in the area, but was booked for simulation after dragging his foot.
Felipe Anderson flicked a Danilo Cataldi corner wide of the near post in stoppages and a late siege failed to pay off.
Luka Romero also foolishly got booked twice in the space of a minute for dissent and kicking the ball away petulantly.
Feyenoord 1-0 Lazio
Gimenez 64 (F)
Sent off: Romero 96 (L)
Comedy of a club
Shame, but in conference league there ll be easier for them, because probably would been dropped immediatly, now they can stay in europe for long
This is karma for Tare and Lazio fans
This could be Rotterdam or anywhere , Liverpool or Rome……