Lazio stay top of the Serie A table with Inter, but made life more difficult than it needed to be against 10-man Monza, despite a Nuno Tavares scorcher.
The Aquile had a big opportunity to stay in top spot after winning four of the opening five Serie A rounds, as they hosted struggling Monza. However, injuries were piling up for Albert Gudmundsson, Adam Marusic, Matteo Cancellieri, Nicolò Rovella, Adrian Przyborek and Alessio Furlanetto. Monza finally got their first win by beating Sassuolo 2-1 before the break for international duty, though Jan Ziolkowski and Matteo Pessina were still unavailable.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
It took under three minutes to break the deadlock with the first ever Lazio goal for Nuno Tavares, who hit a left-foot screamer from outside the box that flew into the roof of the net, giving the Monza goalkeeper no chance.
Davide Frattesi nodded a Mattia Zaccagni cross inches wide from 10 yards, while Gustavo Varela thought he had equalised, only for the Monza goal to be ruled offside.
Instead, Lazio doubled their lead when Gustav Isaksen bent a splendid first-time finish into the far bottom corner with the inside of the left foot from 12 yards on the Tijjani Noslin assist.
Ricardo Mangas rolled across the face of goal only for Exequiel Zeballos to not get there in time from six yards, but Monza’s situation went from bad to worse.
Their penalty appeals were rejected as Nuno Tavares made a very risky but clean tackle on Samuele Birindelli, a long Reda Belahyane ball sent Noslin clear on goal, he was hauled down by Lorenzo Lucchesi for a straight red card.
Monza made a triple change at the break and got back into the game when down to 10 men. A corner was flicked on by Dany Mota Carvalho for Saba Goglichidze to nod in from six yards.
It was so nearly 2-2 moments later, as Ricardo Mangas sprung the offside trap and rolled across for Dany Mota to force a desperate Christos Mandas save from close range.
Lazio seemed to switch off after the Lucchesi red card, and Birindelli wasted a golden opportunity to equalise with an angled drive skimming the far post on the Dany Mota lay-off.
Varela’s effort was deflected just over from 10 yards, and on the resulting corner Mandas needed a fantastic reaction save on the Dany Mota glancing header at the near post.
Belahyane saw his strike palmed over the bar, but Noel Tornqvist was at full stretch to palm a Fisayo Dele-Bashiru curler round the far post.
Isaksen thought he had scored when dinking a delicate finish over the goalkeeper, but it bounced off the upright of an empty net.
Lazio finally locked down the points with Andrea Pinamonti ready to sweep in the Alfonso Pedraza pull-back from point-blank range, his first goal for the club.
Eddy Kouadio prevented a fourth from Isaksen in stoppages with a desperate goal-line clearance.
Lazio 3-1 Monza
Nuno Tavares 3 (L), Isaksen 23 (L), Goglichidze 46 (M), Pinamonti 88 (L)
Sent off: Lucchesi 35 (M)
Player statistic
| Nuno Tavares (Assist: Tijjani Noslin) |
3' | |||
| 13' | Andrea Carboni | |||
| Gustav Isaksen (Assist: Tijjani Noslin) |
23' | |||
| 35' |  |
Lorenzo Lucchesi | ||
| Danilho Doekhi | 45+2' |
| 46' | Saba Goglichidze (Assist: Dany Mota) | |||
| Oliver Provstgaard | 55' | |||
| Diogo Leite |  |
68' | ||
| Andrea Pinamonti (Assist: Alfonso Pedraza) |
 |
88' |
Match statistic
Starting lineups
46' 
