Serie A Week 24: Palermo Obliterate Lazio While Cagliari Hold Udinese
Lazio might have pretenses of finishing in the Champions League spots, but they're going to finish nowhere near the top four if this sort of display is anything like the norm. Within twenty minutes of kickoff in Sicily, the visitors were down 2-0, and the scoreline reflected the balance of play. By early in the second half, it was 5-0, and the last consolation goal Libor Kozak notched was not enough to make the game feel like anything less than an embarrassment. Fortunately for Lazio, they hardly was hardly a first-choice team, but that shouldn't really make anyone feel better after a 5-1 loss.
With Lazio losing, Udinese had a chance to go two points clear in third place with a home game against 12th place Cagliari. They failed to take it, drawing 0-0. The absence of injured captain Antonio di Natale - as well as midfielder Mauricio Isla - was keenly felt by the hosts as Cagliari set up to defend all match. The visitors did virtually nothing with the ball, their attacking portfolio consisting of a couple of speculative long-range efforts. Udinese were perhaps unfortunate not to have notched at least one goal with second-half chances falling to Michel Pazienza and Antonio Floro Flores.
