Lazio 2-1 Cagliari: Pinamonti's late winner pulls Gattuso's side clear of Inter

Lazio left it late to move three points clear at the top of Serie A as Andrea Pinamonti's 83rd-minute winner sealed a 2-1 win over 10-man Cagliari on Sunday.

It looked as though Lazio had failed to fully capitalise on Inter's Derby della Madonnina loss to AC Milan, with M'Bala Nzola's goal cancelled out by Gustav Isaksen in the first half.

But just when the spoils appeared likely to be shared, Pinamonti came off the bench to head home late on, with Cagliari's misery compounded when Adam Obert was sent off.

Davide Frattesi and Mattia Zaccagni sent tame efforts at Elia Caprile inside the first 20 minutes, but it was Cagliari who stunned the Stadio Olimpico into silence moments later.

Michel Adopo won possession and sent Alieu Fadera on his way, and when his deflected cross off Reda Belahyane fell back to him, his second attempt teed up Nzola to finish at Christos Mandas' near post.

But after seeing Romano Floriani Mussolini head narrowly wide, Lazio got themselves level nine minutes before the break through Isaksen, with his curling left-footed shot from the edge of the penalty area picking out the top-right corner.

Lazio flexed their muscles after the interval but were unable to find a way past Caprile, with the Cagliari goalkeeper superbly pushing away Kenneth Taylor's inviting free-kick.

Another teasing set-piece was headed over by Oliver Provstgaard just after the hour, with Taylor then seeing his shot from inside the box whistle narrowly wide of the left post.

Isaksen's bending effort from the right-hand side just evaded the far post as Lazio pushed for a winner, which eventually came seven minutes from time, though Cagliari felt play should have stopped for a head injury to Alessandro Deiola.

Fisayo Dele-Bashiru's attempt at goal struck Deiola flush in the face, but referee Andrea Colombo allowed the game to continue, with Alfonso Pedraza's bouncing cross into the area nodded in by Pinamonti, and Cagliari's hopes of a comeback were dashed when Obert received his second yellow card for a trip on Isaksen.

Free-scoring Lazio go six for six

After seeing Inter suffer their first league defeat of the season against rivals Milan, Gennaro Gattuso and Lazio knew a victory against Cagliari would lay down a statement of their title credentials, and they showed resilience and endeavour to get the job done.

In doing so, Lazio have now won their last six Serie A matches, their best run in the competition since February 2021. They have also scored 24 goals in their opening 10 matches of a top-flight season, only managing more in 2017-18 (26).

Lazio have scored two or more goals in each of their last eight Serie A matches, too. Only once in their history have they netted more than one goal in at least eight consecutive top-flight games, which came in January 2020 (12, with Simone Inzaghi as head coach).

The Biancocelesti have now won 14 of their last 15 home Serie A games against Cagliari (D1), scoring 33 goals in the process. Since the 2010-11 season, Cagliari are the side against whom Lazio have picked up the most home wins at the Stadio Olimpico (14).

But Gattuso's side will know they were in a game here. Lazio finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 0.99 from their 11 shots, to Cagliari's 1.08 from their nine attempts, though only three of those were on target.