Lazio 2 - 0 Palermo - Lazio up to fourth
Posted Sunday, March 06, 2011 by PA
Lazio climbed back into fourth place in Serie A by beating Palermo 2-0 and handing their new coach Serse Cosmi a defeat on his debut.
Giuseppe Sculli scored twice for Lazio in the opening 18 minutes to fire the Romans into a comfortable lead at the Stadio Olimpico.
Palermo struggled again in front of goal and could not find a way back into the game.
Lazio had fallen into fifth place, out of the Champions League spots, after Udinese's 1-0 victory over Bari earlier today.
However, the outcome in Rome has lifted Lazio one point clear of Udinese with 10 games remaining.
Palermo, meanwhile, have dropped to eighth in the standings after a fourth straight defeat and Cosmi's first.
Cosmi took over earlier this week after the Palermo board finally lost patience with Delio Rossi following the 7-0 home humiliation by Udinese last weekend.
Cosmi experimented with a 3-5-1-1 formation with Javier Pastore playing behind Abel Hernandez in attack.
The visitors were on the back foot in the early stages as Lazio swarmed forward and went in front in the seventh minute.
Cristian Ledesma served Sculli inside the area and his right-footed strike towards the far post beat Palermo goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.
Palermo had little time to react as the hosts doubled their lead in the 18th minute.
Lazio capitalised on a mistake by Sirigu when he failed to clear Ledesma's cross and Sculli headed home his second of the night.
It took Palermo 24 minutes to create a chance of note and even then Hernandez's 18-yard effort went wide of the far post.
Palermo came close to reducing the deficit in the half-hour mark.
However, Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Muslera made an acrobatic save from Pastore's close-range header.
Before the interval, Hernanes warmed the palms of Sirigu with a stinding drive from outside the area.
Lazio coach Edy Reja was forced to make a substitution early in the second half with Alvaro Gonzalez replacing the injured Sculli.
Shortly after the hour-mark, Mattia Cassani slotted a pass across the box but could not find a Palermo team-mate.
An unmarked Guglielmo Stendardo should have made it 3-0 with 10 minutes to go but his close-range header from Ledesma's cross went off target.
With one minutes remaining, Palermo substitute Michele Paolucci drilled his low shot wide of the far post in what was the last chance of the game.
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