Back in January, everything was going Lazio’s way. Ciro Immobile was building off his good form from last year and was Serie A’s top goalscorer, former Liverpool reject Luis Alberto was experiencing a career renaissance, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic emerged as arguably the top midfield prospect in all of Europe.
They were in third place in Serie A, the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia, won their Europa League group, and were on track to qualify for the Champions League group stages for the first time since 2007. But soon, that would all change.
Lazio lost to AC Milan in the Coppa Italia, got upset by RB Salzburg in the Europa League knockout stages, and after a less-than-stellar Serie A run to close out the season, they were met with a winner-take-all match against Inter Milan on the final day of the season.
Lazio’s Champions League hopes were hanging on by a thread, but all they had to do was not lose at home against Inter.
The match started off well for Lazio, when Adam Marusic’s shot (which was going nowhere near the goal) deflected right off the face of Ivan Perisic, and Samir Handanovic could do nothing as he watched the ball trundle into the net. After a scrappy equalizer from Inter, Lazio retook the lead going into halftime via Felipe Anderson at the end of a beautiful counter-attack.
But in the second half, the tide would turn. Controversially, soon-to-be Inter player Stefan de Vrij brought down Mauro Icardi in the box, who converted and brought Inter back level yet again.
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The momentum stayed with Inter, as just a minute later, Lazio’s captain, Senad Lulic picked up his 2nd yellow on a challenge that he should know better than to make. Just two minutes after that, Matias Vecino found the back of the net on a corner, giving Inter a 3-2 victory. And just like that, all of Lazio’s progress over the past few years was torn down and smashed into pieces.
With no Champions League next season, Lazio will likely be unable to hang onto their current talent – Stefan de Vrij is already out the door on a free transfer, Milinkovic-Savic will be coveted by almost every top club in Europe, Felipe Anderson is likely to leave this summer, and we may even see Ciro Immobile follow.
Meanwhile, for Inter, this is arguably their most important victory since they started rebuilding themselves, circa 2012. That Champions League berth means everything to them, because now they’ll be able to keep Joao Cancelo and Rafinha without violating financial fair play rules.
They’re also already bringing in Stefan de Vrij and Kwadwo Asamoah on free transfers to bolster an already solid defense, as well one of South America’s top attacking prospects in Lautaro Martinez.
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Thirdly, they have a huge squad with a ridiculous amount of players on loan, so they’ll likely sell off all the deadwood and use the money to bring in a few more quality pieces. Inter is well on their way back to being a top European club.