Lazio won the affair courtesy of Mattia Zaccagni’s penalty.
Their first meeting in the Serie A ended goalless. In the Wednesday tie, there were few scoring opportunities in the Rome derby.
In scoring the goal that gave Lazio the tie, Zaccagni kept his cool and converted a penalty given away by new Roma signing Dean Huijsen.
The tense affair also saw three red cards. Lazio will face Juventus or Frosinone in the Coppa Italia semi-finals.
The Derby della Capitale lived to its billing as Lazio got the first opportunity when Taty Castellanos pounced on a terrible Rasmus Kristensen pass to go clear, but his shot was deflected by Gianluca Mancini.
Mancini again shielded his team when he deflected the Manuel Lazzari solo effort for a corner, while Christos Mandas, making his Lazio debut, fumbled a cross while fouled by Romelu Lukaku.
Mancini was there for Roma again to prevent Mateo Guendouzi from tapping in from six yards on a Lazzari pull-back.
Roma suffered their first setback when Paulo Dybala went off with an injury at half-time.
Lazio got closer this time when Felipe Anderson burst down the right and put in a cross for the Matias Vecino header, only to force a great one-handed Rui Patricio save.
They would, however, from the resulting corner, be awarded a penalty. Castellanos had beaten Huijsen, who kicked the back of his ankle for an inevitable penalty that Zaccagni converted.
The goal further inspired the Biancocelesti. Rui Patricio made a desperate save with his body one-on-one with Vecino, and the Zaccagni follow-up charged down, then the Uruguayan drilled inches wide moments later.
Roma finally had a scoring opportunity two minutes to the end of the game when Sardar Azmoun set it up for Andrea Belotti’s half-volley, which was beaten away by Mandas. The goalie then scrambled back up to push the rebound away from Lorenzo Pellegrini.
Deep into stoppages, Pedro, who was already on a yellow, got issued the second for a vicious scuffle with Leandro Paredes.
Lukaku got into a better position, but his acrobatic chest and overhead kick flashed over the bar.
Roma were also reduced to ten men as Sardar Azmoun was also given a red card for slapping Nicolo’ Rovella on the back of the head.
Mancini was also sent off for dissent after the final whistle.
Speaking with Mediaset after the affair, the former Manchester United manager described the loss as painful to lose the derby.
He noted that Roma have real difficulties as they fight constantly against them.
“In the last few games, we did very well against Napoli and deserved more with Juventus and Atalanta.”
Mourinho pointed out that his team lost to what he called a penalty suited to modern football, one that the referee does not give when he is three meters away, and VAR does.
“This is how the referees are told to act; 20-30 years ago, players would never go down the way they do here. A penalty ought to be seen as the maximum punishment. The referee was right there and decided not to give the penalty, but when there is someone in front of a screen that calls him for minimal contact, and the player puts on a show following that contact, there’s not much he can do.
“I don’t want to say it is not a penalty, but this is the situation.”
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