Lazio continues their hunt for the top four, plunges Dea into crisis mode

Lazio handed Atalanta another defeat, plunging them into further crisis, having lost their last two games.

For Lazio, which threw away three points against Torino in their last outing, the win puts them in the hunt for a top-four finish.

Apart from this being a third consecutive defeat, Atalanta have not been able to find the net in their last three outings.

Nicolò Rovella stopped Atalanta from scoring with a crucial tackle as Ademola Lookman tried to squirm through a crowd of defenders in the penalty area.

Mattia Zaccagni released Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who sprang the offside trap and dinked a finish over Marco Carnesecchi, but Sead Kolasinac cleared from the open goal.

Lazio suffered an injury blow around 34 minutes when Nuno Tavares pulled up with a new muscular injury into his comeback from the start and was replaced by Luca Pellegrini.

The first genuine shot on target came at the dawn of the second half through Dele-Bashiru’s long-range strike, which forced a tricky Carnesecchi save at the near bottom corner.

Atalanta produced a more impressive chance, as Kolasinac pulled back from the by-line for a Mateo Retegui tap-in, but the ball was stopped from going in by the extraordinary Mandas reaction save from six yards.

 Lazio broke the deadlock as Dele-Bashiru shrugged off Isak Hien to run onto a long Mandas ball over the top and knock it down, where substitute Gustav Isaksen slid in to score from nine yards.

Atalanta thought they had finally restored parity, but Mario Gila’s decisive header stopped the Charles De Ketelaere cross from reaching Retegui and Lookman in the six-yard box.

Lazio suffered another injury blow when Samuel Gigot limped off for Oliver Provstgaard, who made his Lazio debut.

Mandas was called into action as he smothered a Davide Zappacosta strike, and Carnesecchi had to fingertip the deflected Luca Pellegrini cross away.

Kolasinac assisted Daniel Maldini rather than going for a goal from close range, but it was intercepted by Provstgaard.

Marco Brescianini’s glancing header from a Zappacosta cross went just wide of the back post.