Lazio defeated Monza 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday, and the result was shaped less by the final scoreline than by two events in the first half: Tijjani Noslin threading two assists before the half-hour mark, and Lorenzo Lucchesi's red card in the 35th minute reducing the visitors to ten men at precisely the moment they needed to hold the game together.
Lazio's Nuno Tavares opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, converting Noslin's delivery to put the hosts ahead almost immediately. The goal was consistent with what Gennaro Gattuso's Lazio had built across the opening weeks of the season โ a side that had conceded only three times in five Serie A matches before kick-off, and one that had not lost in any of those five. Monza's Andrea Carboni collected a yellow card in the 13th minute, a warning that the visitors were already under pressure. Ten minutes later, Lazio's Gustav Isaksen doubled the lead, again assisted by Noslin, and the contest looked effectively settled.
It was not, briefly. Lucchesi's red card in the 35th minute forced Ivan Juriฤ's Monza into emergency reshaping at the break: four substitutions arrived at half-time, among them Saba Goglichidze replacing Cyril Ngonge and Dany Mota coming on for Exequiel Zeballos. The restructuring produced an immediate, if ultimately insufficient, dividend. In the 46th minute, Goglichidze โ on the pitch for less than ten minutes โ pulled one back with an assist from Mota, making it 2-1 and briefly reopening the question of what ten-man Monza might do with renewed momentum.
The answer, as Lazio's substitution pattern made clear, was not enough. Gattuso withdrew Danilho Doekhi โ who had been booked at 45+2' โ at the 53rd minute, and by the 60th minute had also introduced Josip ล utalo and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru. The hosts absorbed the early second-half pressure without conceding again, and the match's decisive goal arrived in the 88th minute: Andrea Pinamonti, who had come on in the 75th minute for Noslin, finished off an assist from Alfonso Pedraza โ himself a 75th-minute substitute for Tavares โ to restore the two-goal margin and close the scoring at 3-1.
Noslin's contribution warrants specific attention. The Lazio forward assisted both of the home side's first-half goals, and the fact that Gattuso chose to withdraw him in the 75th minute โ with the result still at 2-1 and the match not yet sealed โ makes the timing of Pinamonti's winner all the more pointed. The goal that produced the final margin came from a substitute combination, but the platform for it was built by Noslin in the first 23 minutes.
For Monza, the red card is the fact that overwhelms everything else. Lucchesi's dismissal in the 35th minute arrived when the visitors were already two goals down, but it removed any realistic path back into the match. Juriฤ's side had collected four points from their last five Serie A matches before this fixture, with three defeats in that run, and the pattern of conceding early โ Lazio's opener came inside three minutes โ left them chasing the game from the first whistle. The four half-time substitutions were a rational response to an irrational situation, and Goglichidze's goal showed there was still intent, but ten men defending a two-goal deficit against a side that had not lost in five league matches was a structural problem no tactical adjustment could fully solve. Monza's last three Serie A matches now read one win, no draws, two defeats.
Lazio's form across their last five Serie A fixtures โ four wins, one draw, no defeats โ now extends to include this result, with ten goals scored and four conceded across that span. The win keeps Gattuso's side among the early-season pacesetters, their defensive record intact as a genuine foundation rather than a statistical accident.
The Stadio Olimpico saw a match decided in its first half-hour, confirmed by a red card, and closed by substitutes: Lazio's depth, not just their starting quality, is what makes them difficult to shift.