Lazio forward Matteo Cancellieri put the biancocelesti ahead at home against Milan in the fourth round of Serie A, only for a Diego Moreira brace in the second half to pull the visitors level and end the match 2-2 — a result that cost Ivan Gattuso's side two points they had appeared to have secured.
The draw is the first dropped points of Lazio's 2026-27 campaign, and it arrives in a way that complicates the reading of Cancellieri's contribution. He scored. Lazio led by two at half-time. The second half undid both. For a 24-year-old forward whose season numbers already carry an internal tension — a 6.95 average rating across four Serie A appearances, alongside a separate single-match rating of 6.20 — the goal matters, but the context around it muddies any clean narrative of progress.
Cancellieri now has one goal from four Serie A outings in 2026-27. That is a reasonable return for a forward who is not yet a guaranteed starter, but the rating spread across his appearances suggests his influence fluctuates sharply from match to match. The goal against Milan is evidence of what he can produce in the right moment; the 6.20 outing elsewhere in the season is evidence that those moments are not yet consistent enough to be taken for granted.
Lazio sit fourth with ten points from four matches — three wins and this draw — so the damage to their standing is limited. Gattuso's team remain in the upper tier of the early table, and a two-goal lead built in a single half suggests the attacking structure is functioning. The problem was holding it.
For Cancellieri, the task is narrower: an AI overall of 66 out of 100, with a potential of 72, frames him as a player still in development rather than one who has arrived. Goals against top-half opposition are the currency that changes that assessment. He produced one here. The challenge is making the second half of his own performances match the first.