Napoli takes the lead; dubious penalty gives Roma victory in minute 99

Sunday, February 27, 2022 at 10:50 PM
• Chris Meijer • Last update: 00:27

AS Roma narrowly booked a 0-1 victory over Spezia. Vitesse’s coming opponent in the eighth finals of the Conference League was heading for a loss of points against the low flyer, despite the fact that the team of coach José Mourinho played with one man more with Rick Karsdorp as the basic player. A penalty kick in the very last minute of stoppage time finally brought the decision, lifting Roma to sixth place in Serie A for the time being. At the same time, Napoli won 1-2 against Lazio, giving the Neapolitans the lead in Serie A for the time being.

Spezia – AS Roma 0-1
Roma did not exactly travel to La Spezia in great shape, as the last victory was dated January 23. The next four games resulted in three draws and one loss. The Romans could have taken an early lead against the number fourteen of the Serie A, as Lorenzo Pellegrini hit the post after eighteen minutes of play. A minute later, Tammy Abraham appeared in a promising position, but his effort did not yield a goal either.

This is the foul whistled on #Zaniolo#SpeziaRoma 0-1 LIVE pic.twitter.com/oDSzP6AMqY

– CalcioMercato.it (@calciomercatoit) February 27, 2022

Spezia was left with ten men on the stroke of half-time, after Ammonito Amian had to receive two yellow cards in the space of six minutes. Due to the surplus situation, the first opportunities in the second half were for Roma, via Abraham, Bryan Cristante, Jordan Veretout and Pellegrini, among others. Spezia came out at times and saw M’Bala Nzola also create a good opportunity.

Roma kept pushing in the final phase, but did not seem to achieve the winning goal despite opportunities for Nicolò Zaniolo and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. That finally came, in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Roma hit the crossbar twice after a scrimmage, after which the ball was removed from the line. Referee Michael Fabbri was called to the screen because of a high leg from Jakub Kiwior towards Zaniolo. Fabbri decided to give a penalty, which was eventually used by Abraham in the ninth minute of injury time.

Lazio – Naples 1-2
Napoli had the opportunity to take over the Serie A position at the Stadio Olimpico, but had to deal with a mediocre run to achieve this. The team of coach Luciano Spalletti had already gone four games in a row without a win and was eliminated by Barcelona in the Europa League. The duel with opportunities on both sides – for Piotr Zielinski, Ciro Immobile and Felipe Anderson, among others – was broken open by Lorenzo Insigne after an hour of play.

What a discharge ?? Just like AC Milan and Inter, Napoli seemed to lose expensive points, but then… ??#ZiggoSport #SerieA #LazioNapoli pic.twitter.com/dCRJ8jrSp1

— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) February 27, 2022

After a poor defense from Lazio, the Napoli captain was given space to strike from the edge of the box, before finding the right corner behind goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha. Insigne seemed to decide the match for a few minutes, but that goal was canceled due to offside after VAR interference. Two minutes before the end, Napoli still seemed to get the lid on the nose. Pedro took a rejected free kick in one go on the slipper and left goalkeeper David Ospina without a chance. However, the final word was for Napoli in the fourth minute of injury time: Fabian Ruiz gave Napoli the victory with a long shot and thus the provisional lead.