Matias Vecino bagged a brace along with goals from Luis Alberto and Felipe Anderson, as Lazio dominated Feyenoord for an hour before taking their foot off the gas late on in the Europa League opener.
The Aquile were coming off their first Serie A defeat of the season to Napoli and kept squad rotation to a minimum, resting Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Patric against a Feyenoord side that lost the Conference League Final last term against Roma.
There was a minute’s silence before kick-off in honour of Queen Elizabeth II.
It took under four minutes to break the deadlock, as Luis Alberto completed a give-and-go with Matias Vecino to spring the offside trap and beat the goalkeeper one-on-one.
Felipe Anderson waltzed towards the defenders, cut inside and the low shot squirmed under the goalkeeper, who really should’ve done better at the near post.
Vecino thought he’d scored a third on 26 minutes, but the finish hit goalkeeper Justin Bijlow from point-blank range and went over the bar.
He did get it moments later, as Mattia Zaccagni’s cross was beaten away at the near post, but only as far as Vecino for the tap-in.
Luis Alberto has scored directly from the corner flag before and almost did it again with his in-swinging effort off the crossbar at the far top corner.
The only chance a surprisingly sluggish Feyenoord actually had in the first half was a sudden Szymanski snapshot that stung Ivan Provedel’s gloves.
Feyenoord came out fighting after the break with Alessio Romagnoli blocking the Alireza Jahanbakhsh effort, then Patrik Walemark’s curler inches wide.
Immobile could’ve made it 4-0, his angled drive skimming the far post after good work from Felipe Anderson.
Instead, Luis Alberto’s through ball was meant to be for Immobile, but ended up releasing Vecino through the centre to sweep past the goalkeeper and complete his brace.
Feyenoord did get their consolation when Vecino caught Santiago Gimenez after a shot was charged down and the same player converted the penalty.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic came on for his 300th game in the Lazio jersey and Idrissi fired across the face of goal.
Feyenoord added another late on, as Idrissi’s scorching strike thumped both the upright and the crossbar before Gimenez turned in the rebound.
Milinkovic-Savic forced a great save with an angled drive and Matteo Cancellieri was blocked on the follow-up.
There was some panic in stoppages when Mario Gil’s unorthodox tackle on Gimenez saw the referee point to the spot, but the official changed his mind after a VAR review showed he got the ball.
Lazio 4-2 Feyenoord
Luis Alberto 4 (L), Felipe Anderson 15 (L), Vecino 27, 63 (L), Gimenez pen 69, 88 (F)
I get Max would have played 10-0/0 terror ball and lost 2-1 vs. a powerhouse like Feyenoord