Lazio and the Stadio Olimpico showed no mercy to their former favorite Simone Inzaghi as the Biancocelesti dismantled his Inter side 3-1 on Friday night to temporarily move to the top of the Serie A table. It was the second time that the former Lazio coach came back to the Olimpico since parting ways with the Eagles. It ended with the exact same score as one year ago, but calling it a curse would not fully explain why Inter struggled so much tonight.

The Nerazzurri appeared dreadfully far from their best form, with the only Lautaro Martinez (who scored Inter’s temporary equalizer) living up to the expectation. Maurizio Sarri, on the other hand, made the best out of his changes as Lazio’s second and third goal came from substitutes Luis Alberto and Pedro, who built up on Felipe Anderson’s opener. Sarri started with a solid 4-3-3 lineup with Ivan Provedel between the sticks and former Inter player Matias Vecino in the middle of the park. Felipe Anderson partnered with Ciro Immobile and Mattia Zaccagni upfront.

Simone Inzaghi did not deviate from his usual 3-5-2 formation but surprisingly gave a chance to Roberto Gagliardini, who played in midfield instead of Hakan Calhanoglu. Inter started aggressive and tested Provedel with Denzel Dumfries first and then with Gagliardini, who found the former Spezia custodian equal to the task. Lazio answered on 15 minutes with a Ciro Immobile shot that went off target by a few inches.
The Biancocelesti grew minute after minute and came to test Samir Handanovic multiple times. On 37 minutes, Immobile was served by Felipe Anderson and called the Slovenian goalkeeper to a difficult save.
Romelu Lukaku’s header three minutes later was the Belgian’s only noteworthy effort of the night. It served as a prelude to Lazio’s first goal, which came immediately after. Much of the credit for it must go to Sergej Milinkovic Savic, who picked Anderson with a fabulous lob to put the ball past the Nerazzurri‘s shaky defense.