Lazio got back on track with a comfortable thrashing of Cremonese thanks to a Ciro Immobile brace, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Pedro.
Confidence was low for the Aquile, who suffered a humiliating 5-1 Europa League defeat to Midtjylland on Thursday. Manuel Lazzari was injured, though Danilo Cataldi returned from suspension. As for Cremonese, they’d seemingly turned a corner with back-to-back draws against Sassuolo and Atalanta getting them off the mark.
Lazio took an early lead when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s through ball released Ciro Immobile to score from a tight angle.
Immobile also saw a strike charged down by Luka Lochoshvili’s arm, which after a VAR on-field review resulted in a penalty converted by the Lazio hitman.
Cyriel Dessers skimmed the upright for Cremonese, but Milinkovic-Savic added a goal to his earlier assist, ready to turn in the rebound on a save from Mattia Zaccagni.
After the restart, Ivan Provedel rushed off he line to make the save on Leonardo Sernicola, then Matteo Bianchetti’s header was off target on a corner.
Immobile would’ve completed his hat-trick if not for the Ionut Radu save, while Provedel prevented Emanuele Valeri scoring with an acrobatic over-head kick.
Instead, Lazio got a fourth when Immobile ran off on the counter-attack from Luis Alberto’s pass and generously rolled it across for substitute Pedro’s angled drive.
Alessio Romagnoli almost got a fifth, his header from a corner thumping the upright.
Cremonese 0-4 Lazio
Immobile 7, pen 21 (L), Milinkovic-Savic 45 (L), Pedro 79 (L)