Immobile hits hat-trick in Lazio's win over Verona, Roma beats Fiorentina

Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile took his season tally to 34 goals with a hat-trick against Verona while Jordan Veretout converted two penalties in a Roma win.

Lazio's Ciro Immobile celebrates his hat-trick against Verona.

Serie A leading scorer Ciro Immobile scored a hat-trick, taking his tally to 34 league goals this season, as Lazio came from behind to thump Verona 5-1 away on Sunday.

The 30-year-old converted two penalties and scored with a majestic curling shot to leave him two goals short of Gonzalo Higuain's record of 36 goals in a Serie A season with two matches to play.

Fourth-placed Lazio gifted the host a penalty in the 38th minute when Luiz Felipe allowed Valentin Eysseric to steal the ball off him and then tripped the Verona player. Morocco midfielder Sofyan Amrabat converted to claim his first goal for Verona.

The visitor levelled with another penalty in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time after Darko Lazovic clattered into Immobile and handled in the process.

 

After consulting the pitchside monitor, the referee pointed to the spot and Immobile placed his penalty beyond the reach of Verona's debutant goalkeeper Boris Radunovic.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic put Lazio ahead in the 56th minute from a free kick which took a deflection that wrong-footed Radunovic and Joaquin Correa added another seven minutes later with another deflected shot.

Immobile then produced the best goal of the evening, side-footing a curling shot into the net from Jordan Lukaku's pass before winning and converting another penalty in stoppage time.

Veretout penalty brace beats Fiorentina

Jordan Vertout (Right) celebrates after scoring Roma's second goal.

 

AS Roma midfielder Jordan Veretout converted two penalties to give it a 2-1 win over his former club Fiorentina as it continued its impressive recent run in Serie A on Sunday.

The Frenchman put Roma ahead in the 45th minute after Bruno Peres ran onto Edin Dzeko's pass and was tripped by Pol Lirola.

German Pezzella headed against the post for Fiorentina and Nikola Milenkovic equalised nine minutes into the second half when he headed in from a corner.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan hit the post for Roma who were awarded another penalty when Dzeko went down under a challenge from Fiorentina goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano and Veretout converted again with three minutes left.

 

Roma, which has won five and drawn won of its last six games, remained fifth with 64 points which would earn it a Europa League group stage place next season. Fiorentina is 12th with 43 points.

Udinese followed up Thursday's defeat by Juventus by winning 1-0 at Cagliari with a second-minute goal from Stefano Okaka while Torino ensured their survival with a 1-1 draw at home to relegated SPAL.

Simone Verdi put Torino ahead with a solo goal in the 57th minute and SPAL, thrashed 6-1 at home by Roma in midweek, equalised with a Marco D'Alessandro goal in the 80th minute.