Lazio Thump Marseille

By Joshua Walters

Lazio compounded Olympique Marseille’s struggling form in the Europa League with a 3-1 win at the Stade Vélodrome on Thursday.

It was the second time the last season’s losing finalists were losing points at home, following a 2-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt on the campaign's opening day.

Marseille drew 2-2 at Apollon Limassol on match day-two, but could not build on it on match day-three as they failed to glitter again in front of their home crowd.

Wallace dos Santos put Lazio ahead in the 10th minute by latching on to Lukas Leiva’s expertly taken corner kick to produce a header that bounced off the ground before heading into the bottom right corner.

Ciro Immobile hit the upright in the 22nd minute before he controlled a poor pass on the edge of the box to shoot towards the roof of the net ten minutes later. But, Marseille goalkeeper, Steve Mandanda, leaped to make a brilliant save to it.

Lazio’s Senad Lulic forced a decent save from Steve Mandanda in the 53rd minute before Marseille’s Morgan Sanson shot narrowly wide three minutes later before.

Felipe Caicedo increased the tally in the 56th minute by latching on to a precise pass from Ciro Immobile to beat Mandanda with a low accurate shot into the bottom left corner.

Dimitri Dimitri Payet brought Marseille back into the game in the 86th minute by curling a rebound towards goal after hitting a truly outstanding free kick into the left post.

Lazio, however, did not allow the hosts to cause any more havoc as they increased the tally just three minutes after.

Adam Marusic weaved his way past opponents and unleashed a magnificent effort from the edge of the box into the top left corner beyond the reach of Mandanda.

The win puts Lazio in second place with six points; three points adrift leaders Eintracht Frankfurt. Marseille follow in third place with a point, ahead of Apollon, who also have just a point from three games.