Lazio moves to 4th in Serie A with dominant 5-1 win over bottom club Monza

By Canadian Press on February 9, 2025.

MILAN (AP) — Lazio moved back into fourth place in Serie A with a dominant 5-1 win over bottom club Monza on Sunday.

Adam Marusic’s header gave Lazio only a slender lead at the break, despite being in full control, but the floodgates opened in the second half with Pedro scoring twice and Taty Castellanos and Faruq Dele-Bashiru adding the others.

Stefano Sensi converted a late penalty for Monza, which remained eight points from safety.

Lazio leapfrogged two points above Juventus, which slipped back to fifth. It was nine points below Napoli ahead of the Serie A leader’s match against Udinese later Sunday.

First for Dybala

Paulo Dybala netted his first goal of 2025 to help a much-changed Roma team to a 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Venezia.

Dybala powerfully converted a second-half penalty after teammate Angeliño was tripped by Venezia defender Alessandro Marcandalli.

Roma coach Claudio Ranieri had opted to rotate his team ahead of Thursday’s Europa League playoff against Porto.

Roma remained ninth in Serie A. Venezia was second from last, five below safety.

Cagliari boosted its chances of avoiding the drop with a 2-1 win over fellow struggler Parma to inch four points clear of the relegation zone. Parma stayed in the bottom three.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Daniella Matar, The Associated Press