A goal and assist from Valentin Castellanos helped Lazio on their way to a 3-0 win at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris for their second win of the season and a fifth straight head-to-head success over Genoa.
Lazio caught the hosts cold after just four minutes when Castellanos sent Matteo Cancellieri streaking away behind the defence, and the 23 year-old opened up his body to finish brilliantly into the far corner for his first Lazio goal.
Rightly basking in the moment and thriving after it, he almost had a second when Nicola Leali was caught in no-man’s land but the Genoa keeper was able to make a well-improvised save.
Vitinha and Lorenzo Colombo tried to get the hosts back into the game to no avail, and they were hit by another rapid Lazio break just after the half-hour mark, when Adam Marusic and Castellanos traded passes, with the final ball from the Montenegrin being clinically finished first-time by Castellanos.
Despite being two goals down, the home fans were bringing plenty of noise and colour and they were out of their seats on the stroke of half-time when Colombo flicked on Aaron Martin’s ball over the top only for Ivan Provedel to tip it around the post.
Genoa’s night hinged on a couple of VAR decisions either side of the hour mark.
First, they had a potential route back into the game taken away from them when a penalty initially given for an Alessio Romagnoli handball was overturned before Mattia Zaccagni was confirmed to be onside by the video official when he bundled home after Cancillieri’s header came back off the post.
Indeed, those two were cutting through Patrick Viera’s side at will and set each other up for chances that they should have arguably done better with.
At the other end, the Rossoblu had chances to get on the scoresheet and net a consolation, but both Leo Ostigård and Jeff Ekhator spurned back-post efforts as the clock ran down.
The win moves Maurizio Sarri’s side up to 12th in the Serie A table after five games while Genoa remain winless with just two points.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Matteo Cancellieri (Lazio)
