Alberto goal lifts Lazio over Sampdoria, Torino win

MILAN: Luis Alberto scored the only goal as Lazio battled past Sampdoria 1-0 to move fourth in Serie A on Saturday.

Lazio’s six-match winning streak ended last weekend with a painful 3-1 defeat at Inter Milan.

But Spaniard Alberto struck ater 24 minutes in Rome curling in off a Sergej Milinkovic-savic cross for his seventh league goal this campaign.

Simone Inzaghi’s side overtake Juventus to move fourth into the Champions League berths, equal on points with third-placed Roma, with both their rivals playing later this weekend.

Lazio lost 3-0 to Sampdoria earlier this season and were again made to work by Claudio Ranieri’s mid-table side.

Lazio forward Ciro Immobile and Sampdoria’s Fabio Quagliarella both threatened in the first half ater Alberto’s opener.

And Vedat Muriqi came off the bench in place of Alberto ater an hour, minutes later missing a chance for the second.

Adam Marusic sent through from the right but Kosovar Muriqi was unable to control the ball to finish off on front of goal.

Lazio nevertheless held on to extend their unbeaten home run against their Genoa rivals to 15 games, and sit 11 points behind leaders Inter.

Earlier, Cagliari decided to not speak to the press ater the 1-0 defeat to Torino and coach Eusebio Di Francesco’s position seems uncertain.

Nobody came to talk to the press ater the narrow loss to the Granata, who increased the gap down to 18th-placed Rossoblu on Friday night.

Bremer’s header separated the sides on the night and the reflections at the Casteddu are underway.

Sportitalia reports President Tommaso Giulini could also decide to sack coach Di Francesco, who was brought in to replace Walter Zenga last summer.

Di Francesco has overseen 10 defeats in the last 13 games and 14 defeats in 23 Serie A fixtures this term.

Calciomercato reports former Cagliari coach Massimo Rastelli could be one of the alternatives to succeed Di Francesco at the helm, with Vincenzo Montella also mentioned as a possible replacement.