Venezia 0-2 Lazio: Christos Mandas saves a penalty before Zaccagni and Noslin settle it

Christos Mandas saved a penalty in the first quarter of an hour, and it barely mattered — Lazio still won at the Penzo, with the game settled in an eleven-minute spell either side of the hour mark. Mattia Zaccagni converted a penalty of his own in the 51st minute and Tijjani Noslin headed a second in the 60th, giving Gennaro Gattuso's side a 2-0 win over a Venezia team that is still without a point after five rounds.

A penalty saved, then two conceded

Venezia had the game's first big moment, when John Yeboah stepped up from the spot in the 17th minute — Mandas guessed the right way and pushed the effort clear. It stayed goalless until after the break, when Zaccagni sent Filip Stanković the wrong way to make it 1-0, and Noslin headed in Nuno Tavares's cross from the left ten minutes later to put the game out of reach.

Six yellow cards and a fifth straight defeat

The afternoon got worse for Venezia as it wore on. Thierry Correia, Juan Jesus, Kike Pérez, Toni Fernández, Joël Schingtienne and Matías Moreno were all booked — six cautions in all, a sign of how the game slipped away from Giovanni Stroppa's side in the closing stages. It is now five defeats out of five for Venezia, with four goals scored and thirteen conceded, comfortably the worst return in Serie A this season.

What the managers said

Both managers were candid afterwards. Gennaro Gattuso admitted his side rode their luck for large parts of the game, while Giovanni Stroppa pointed to the underlying numbers as evidence that Venezia's results have not reflected their performances.

"We were lucky today, as Venezia were so good in the first half and if they had been 2-0 up, we couldn't have complained. Our approach was wrong, we did well after the break, and this is part of the process."

— Gennaro Gattuso, Lazio manager

"The table does not reflect the performances of the team. You just have to look at the statistics, we had six shots on target, Lazio had two, and we lost 2-0. The penalty could've been a turning point, we didn't make the most of it, and Lazio did convert their spot-kick instead."

— Giovanni Stroppa, Venezia manager

Match facts

Line-ups

The best defence against the worst

The result stretched two runs that are already heading in opposite directions. Lazio arrived in Venice unbeaten through Gattuso's first four matches — wins over Bologna and Genoa either side of a home draw with AC Milan — and now share Serie A's best defensive record with Cagliari, just two goals conceded all season. Venezia have gone the other way: five matches, five defeats, and thirteen goals conceded, more than any other club in the division, after already losing 2-3 at Frosinone and 2-4 at home to Fiorentina in the two rounds before this one. Roma and Inter currently lead the table on 13 points each; Lazio sit one point back on 10, with a game in hand still to play before the international break.

Where the table stands

What's next

Venezia go into the international break needing a reset under Stroppa, still searching for their first point of the season. Lazio, unbeaten in all five league games so far, have given Gattuso the best possible platform heading into the pause.