Pedro maintains Lazio strong in Europa League top spot. The Spaniard keeps on adding to his sensational scoring streak and is doing so to be decisive in Europe: he scored the injury-time winner making it 2-1 against Porto as the Biancocelesti remain at the top of the table with a perfect win record of four wins out of four games.
It was Lazio who began brighter here, and the in-form Taty Castellanos delivered an early warning for the Portuguese outfit when he clinically dispatched an angled strike that was subsequently ruled out for offside.
Those neutrals hoping for a flurry of chances would be disappointed, but Arsenal loanee Fabio Vieira briefly bucked that trend when he rifled a stinging left-footed strike onto the crossbar. However, in first-half stoppage time, Marco Baroni’s side broke the deadlock through Alessio Romagnoli after Castellanos headed Pedro’s corner into the defender’s path.
Porto came out with renewed intensity after the break in a bid to restore parity, but Tiago Djalo missed the target by some distance with his speculative long-range effort. It was more to come from the Portuguese side as Stephen Eustaquio provided the equaliser with his 66th-minute goal, coolly slotting home a first-time right-footed finish to meet Galeno’s cross from the left-hand side.
Matias Vecino should have restored Lazio’s lead moments later, but the Uruguayan headed over after surging into the box to meet an inswinging cross from the right flank. But just when Porto thought they were edging their way towards a hard-fought point, the evergreen Pedro was back to his favourite mission of getting the most from every action, as he ghosted in unmarked to fire home from Gustav Isaksen’s superb ball into the box.
- Match stats:
LAZIO (4-2-3-1): Mandas; Marusic, Gigot (66' Gila), Romagnoli, Nuno Tavares (88' Pellegrini); Guendouzi, Vecino; Tchaouna (66' Rovella), Pedro, Zaccagni (71' Isaksen); Castellanos (66' Dia).
PORTO (4-2-3-1): Diogo Costa; Martim Fernandes (62' Joao Mario), Nehuen Perez, Djalò, Francisco Moura; Varela (62' Nico Gonalez), Eustaquio; Fabio Vieira (84' Ansrè Franco), Namaso (62' Pepe), Galeno; Samu (76' Gul).
Bookings: Georgi Kabakov (BUL) amonestó a Gigot (3'), Namaso (15'), Zaccagni (27'), Samu (30'), Nehuen Perez (39'), Djalò (45'+1'), Guendouzi (81'), Pepe (90'+4').
Goals: Romagnoli (45'+4'), Eustachio (66'), Pedro (90'+2').
2 - 1 