Lazio end the Serie A season in second place thanks to this victory away to Empoli, sealed by an Alessio Romagnoli header and well-taken Luis Alberto strike.
The hosts had already secured safety and the visitors wanted to lock down second place, despite missing Danilo Cataldi and Adam Marusic, with coach Maurizio Sarri suspended. Empoli were without Koni De Winter, Razvan Marin, Tyronne Ebuehi, Francesco Caputo and the Under-20 World Cup talents Tommaso Baldanzi, Duccio Degli Innocenti and Gabriele Guarino.
Luis Alberto immediately tested Guglielmo Vicario from distance, while Pedro’s first touch let him down on the Sergej Milinkovic-Savic through ball.
Ciro Immobile had to act as a defender charging down the Cacace strike and the forward then mis-kicked a Felipe Anderson assist from 12 yards.
Immobile did better with a looping header acrobatically fingertipped out from under the bar by Vicario, then the goalkeeper used his legs to parry the Patric strike.
Vicario made a remarkable reaction save with a trailing glove to push the Immobile dinked finish past the far post from a tight angle.
Lazio finally found a way through at the dawn of the second half when Luis Alberto’s in-swinging corner found Alessio Romagnoli for a glancing header at the near post.
Mattia Zaccagni tested Vicario from close range and the Immobile rebound was charged down, but Vicario got down for a sensational one-handed save on Immobile’s low drive from the edge of the area.
Nicolò Cambiaghi had a nightmare end to the match, as first his ferocious strike was beaten away by Ivan Provedel, then as Zaccagni went on the counter, he received a second yellow card.
It allowed Lazio the space to double their lead in stoppages with a magnificent Luis Alberto first time strike, sweeping right-footed into the top corner from the edge of the D on Zaccagni’s assist.
Empoli 0-2 Lazio
Romagnoli 48 (L), Luis Alberto 92 (L)
Sent off: Cambiaghi 89 (E)
Player statistic
| Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro |  |
14' | ||
| Nicolò Cambiaghi | |
37' | ||
| 39' | |
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic |
| 48' |  |
Alessio Romagnoli (Assist: Luis Alberto) | ||
| 62' | |
Matías Vecino | ||
| Nicolò Cambiaghi |  |
89' | ||
| 90+2' | |
Luis Alberto (Assist: Ciro Immobile) |
Match statistic
