Atalanta managed to scrape a point at the Stadio Olimpico with a squad down to the bare bones, as the woodwork kept out Mattia Zaccagni and Lazio.
The Aquile had to reshuffle with Danilo Cataldi suspended, Francesco Acerbi, Pedro and Stefan Radu injured, plus Jean-Daniel Akpa-Akpro at the Africa Cup of Nations. Atalanta almost didn’t make the trip, as Duvan Zapata and Robin Gosens are injured, with Luis Muriel, Teun Koopmeiners, Josip Ilicic, Ruslan Malinovskyi, Mario Pasalic and Hans Hateboer testing positive for COVID-19, leaving only four outfield players on the bench, including two youth teamers with no senior experience.
Giuseppe Pezzella couldn’t keep his header on target from a Davide Zappacosta cross, while Giorgio Scalvini had a shot charged down after the Roberto Piccoli lay-off.
Merih Demiral made a decisive sliding tackle to stop Ciro Immobile on the counter, but Matteo Pessina had the first real shot on target on 50 minutes, straight at Thomas Strakosha.
Immobile had a strike deflected wide and Jose Luis Palomino cut Sergej Milinkovic-Savic off with a well-timed challenge.
Lazio had a huge scoring opportunity on 63 minutes when Berat Djimsiti failed to cut out Milinkovic-Savic’s cross, Mattia Zaccagni controlled and smashed his finish off the base of the upright.
Moments later, Aleksei Miranchuk curled just wide with his left boot from the edge of the box, then tested Strakosha, but limped off with a muscular problem.
Adam Marusic went so close with an effort on the half-volley that skimmed the far top corner with Juan Musso beaten.
Lazio 0-0 Atalanta