Lazio run riot as ten-man Sassuolo collapse 6-2 at the Mapei Stadium
Four goals inside 16 minutes, a red card for Kristian Thorstvedt and two Tijjani Noslin strikes carried Lazio to a rout that keeps them level with Inter at the Serie A summit.
Lazio scored six times at the Mapei Stadium to beat a Sassuolo side reduced to ten men, despite Stefano Turati saving two separate penalties, according to Football Italia. The win kept the Biancocelesti level with Inter at the top of Serie A heading into the midweek round.
Maurizio Sarri's side were missing Albert Gudmundsson, Adam Marusic and Nicolò Rovella, while Diogo Leite's absence let Oliver Provstgaard play. Sassuolo were without Jay Idzes, Fedde Leysen, Ismael Koné and Daniel Boloca, and had taken only one point from their previous four league matches, a 1-1 draw with Milan, Football Italia reported. Andrea Pinamonti returned to the bench after a throat infection but did not feature.
Lazio supporters, who are boycotting home fixtures in protest at president Claudio Lotito, travelled in numbers that outweighed the home crowd inside the Mapei Stadium, per Football Italia.
Early blitz exposed Sassuolo in transition
The opening quarter of an hour produced four goals, a sequence Football Italia noted had not been matched in the first 16 minutes of a Serie A game since Atalanta against Bologna in April 2019. Kenneth Taylor scored inside two minutes after Gustav Isaksen's run down the right was deflected into his path by a mistimed Luca Lipani interception. Sassuolo levelled almost immediately through Kristian Thorstvedt, set up by Josh Doig, with a possible deflection off Bosko Sutalo.
The pattern that followed was built on the same right-sided combination repeatedly. Mattia Zaccagni cut inside from the left to feed Isaksen for Lazio's second, and three minutes later Taylor threaded a pass through the same zone for Romano Floriani Mussolini to tap in his first senior goal, confirmed after a VAR check despite an initial offside flag. Sassuolo's back line, already without Idzes and Leysen, struggled to track the overlapping runs between Isaksen and Zaccagni in the half-space, and each Lazio goal in that opening spell came from the same side of the pitch.
The red card turned a contest into a rout
Thorstvedt's dismissal for a reckless tackle on Zaccagni's ankle and shin, awarded a straight red by the referee, removed any prospect of Sassuolo controlling the game through central midfield. Playing a man short forced the hosts into a deeper, more passive defensive block for the remainder of the half, and Lazio's quicker ball circulation found gaps before Sassuolo could reorganise.
Sebastiano Esposito pulled a goal back before the interval, converting after Simone Cinquegrano headed a cross back across goal, and Zaccagni added a close-range header from an Isaksen cross in first-half stoppage time to make it 4-2. Even with the numerical disadvantage, Sassuolo's resistance in the final third of the first half showed they were not simply conceding territory, but the shape behind the ball had already been compromised by the sending-off.
Turati's saves were the only thing slowing Lazio down
Sassuolo's goalkeeper produced the game's most notable individual contribution, saving two penalties in the second half. The first came after Cinquegrano's raised arm blocked a Zaccagni effort, with Zaccagni himself missing from the spot. The second followed a foul by Duje Caleta-Car on Isaksen, and this time Turati denied David Frattesi. Both saves briefly checked Lazio's momentum without altering the outcome.
Tijjani Noslin scored twice either side of those saves, the first a bent finish from Zaccagni's pass and the second a long-range strike into the top corner that Football Italia described as leaving Turati with no chance. Matteo Cancellieri headed wide of a seventh late on, while Christos Mandas made a save at the other end on a Kieron Bowie effort that was ruled out for offside.
The 6-2 result leaves Lazio joint top of Serie A with Inter, built on a front line that repeatedly isolated Sassuolo's full-backs and a cushion that a reduced opponent could never claw back from eighteen minutes in.