Lazio 0-1 Juventus: Late Dybala Strike Gives Juve Crucial Win Over High Flying Le Aquile
A late Paulo Dybala strike was enough to give Juventus all three points in heated encounter with Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.
The home side made five changes to the side that beat Sassuolo 3-0 in their last Serie A outing. Out went Wallace, Luiz Felipe, Adam Maursic, Alessandro Murgia and Felipe Anderson; and in came Ramos Marchi, Stefan De Vrij, Senad Lulic, Marco Parolo and Luis Alberto.
As for the visitors, they made seven changes to the side that beat Torino 1-0 in their previous Serie A outing. Out went Wojciech Schzesny, Mattia De Sciglio, Giorgio Chiellini, Stefano Sturaro, Douglas Costa, Gonzalo Higuain and Alex Sandro; whilst in came Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Mehdi Benatia, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Blaise Matuidi, Mario Mandzukic and Paulo Dybala.
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It was the hosts who made the brighter of starts to the game, and could've been ahead after 10 minutes when Miralem Pjanic's free-kick was swung into a dangerous area towards the head of Mandzukic; however he was unable to keep his diving header down, and watched the ball sail over the crossbar.
Around 10 minutes later it was Lazio's turn to test the gloves of Buffon in the visiting goal, with the Italian veteran managing to get down and hold Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s header from a corner. He was then on hand soon after to deny Ciro Immobile - playing against his former club - who saw his well struck effort turned round the post.
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Both teams were enjoying possession, however no clear cut chances were being carved out. Then on the stroke of half-time, Juve thought they were in front when Jordan Lukaku put the ball in the back of his own net from an awkward corner. However, the referee saw a foul in the build up to the goal and decided to chalk the goal off; a let off for the hosts heading into half time.
The second half began a lot like the first half did, with neither team really threatening the opposition goal. Dybala managed to get some efforts away at goal, however none were able to test Thomas Strakosha in the Lazio goal.
The match looked to be heading towards a stalemate 0-0 draw, with Juventus not even managing a shot on target for the whole 90 minutes. However, the hosts were to be denied by a very late strike.
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In the second of three additional minutes at the end of the game, the ball fell to Dybala on the edge of the penalty area who was able to barge his way into the box. He tussled with his marker and was somehow able to get a shot at goal away.
The ball flew into Strakosha's top corner, leaving the keeper with no chance and leaving the Lazio fans heartbroken. Even Buffon ran the entire length of the pitch to celebrate with his teammates as they extended their unbeaten run in all competition's to 20 games.
The win now temporarily takes Juventus back to within one point of the league leaders Napoli and will give them a huge amount of confidence heading into the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash with Tottenham at Wembley on Wednesday.
As for Lazio, they missed the chance to cut the gap on Juve to 10 point, and instead find themselves 16 points adrift of I Bianconeri. Things could get worse for Lazio as Inter now have the chance to leapfrog them should they win their game in hand against AC Milan on Sunday.
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