Lazio's wide overloads expose a disjointed Juventus in 3-0 rout
Goals from Oliver Provstgaard, Gustav Isaksen and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru sent Lazio to a first Serie A win in Turin since 2017 and kept them level with Inter at the top.
Juventus lost 3-0 at home to Lazio on Saturday, a result that leaves the Bianconeri's Serie A form well behind their European standing and keeps the Aquile joint top of the table alongside Inter, according to Football Italia.
The scoreline came just days after Juventus had beaten Celta Vigo 2-1 away in the Europa League, a comeback win that had suggested momentum domestically too. Instead, Luciano Spalletti's side managed only their second Serie A win in five rounds, extending a stuttering run that now includes a heavy home defeat.
Spalletti himself was absent from the touchline, serving a ban stemming from his clash with Cagliari coach Fabio Pisacane, with assistant Marco Domenichini standing in. Juventus were also missing Kenan Yildiz, Manuel Locatelli, Khephren Thuram, Jeff Ekhator and Kamil Grabara, a list of absences that thinned out their options in central areas.
Lazio found Juventus at their weakest out wide
Lazio's route to victory ran almost entirely through the flanks, and specifically through the combination of Nuno Tavares and Romano Floriani Mussolini on the left and right respectively. Tavares supplied the cross-field pass that Gustav Isaksen controlled for the second goal, with Floriani Mussolini's run dragging Zeki Celik out of position and creating the space for Isaksen to cut inside and curl a left-footed finish into the far corner.
The opening goal, scored by Oliver Provstgaard in the 37th minute, came from a short corner worked for Mattia Zaccagni to cross, with the Danish defender glancing a header in from six yards between Gleison Bremer and Jhon Lucumi. That Juventus conceded from a routine they should have been prepared for says something about their defensive organisation at set pieces, an area where Lazio had already come close before the goal when a deflected Tavares cross cannoned back off the crossbar via Bremer.
Tavares was a persistent threat throughout, later forcing Pierre Kalulu into a deflected clearance for a corner with a driven effort of his own. The pattern was consistent: Lazio stretched the pitch through their full-backs and wingers, and Juventus's back line, missing Thuram's cover in midfield, struggled to adjust.
Juventus had the ball but not the control
The possession figures tell a misleading story on their own. Juventus held 58 percent of the ball to Lazio's 42, yet managed only two shots on target from eight attempts, compared to Lazio's three from nine, according to the statistics recorded by Football Italia. Territory without penetration summed up much of Juventus's night.
Randal Kolo Muani thought he had put Juventus ahead in the 24th minute, turning in a Nico Gonzalez flick-on, but the goal was ruled out for offside before he had even reached the ball. Nico Gonzalez was also denied what he felt should have been a free-kick after going down on the edge of the box, though the contact with Kenneth Taylor appeared accidental rather than a foul.
At half-time, Nick Woltemade replaced an ineffective Kerim Alajbegovic, pushing Juventus into a 4-4-2 that briefly created problems for Lazio. Kolo Muani rolled a pass across the box for Woltemade, who could only prod wide of the near post, and later nodded over from a Woltemade cross after Bosko Sutalo had done well to cut out an earlier Kalulu delivery. Kolo Muani also teed up Nico Gonzalez for an angled drive that drifted off target, while Francisco Conceicao's late curling effort was too central to trouble Christos Mandas. None of it was enough to change the shape of the game.
A result that confirms rather than flukes Lazio's start
Isaksen doubled the lead in the 66th minute, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru settled any doubt in the 89th, driving from inside his own half before finishing past Guglielmo Vicario with an angled strike assisted by Andrea Pinamonti. It was Lazio's first Serie A victory in Turin since October 2017, a detail that underlines how rare this kind of result against Juventus at home has become for them.
Lazio achieved it despite missing Albert Gudmundsson, Matteo Cancellieri, Nicolò Rovella, Alessio Furlanetto and Adam Marusic, a reminder that their squad depth is holding up under the pressure of chasing the top of the table alongside Inter. For Juventus, the gap between their European form and their domestic consistency is now the more pressing question, with Spalletti due back on the touchline for the next round of fixtures.