By Jerry Mancini.
Ciro Immobile scored a hat-trick for Lazio, leading the way for the Bianconcelesti as they defeated Sampdoria 5-1.
This was Lazio’s eleventh win in a row and they are now unbeaten in their last fourteen games. Felipe Caicedo and Bastos also scored in the match, but it is Immobile who continues to impress.
The striker has scored 23 goals in Serie A and leads the league. The forward is on pace to beat Gonzalo Higuain’s record of 36 from his 2015/16 season with Napoli.
“We would need too much time to count his records,” Inzaghi said.
“We are talking about an extraordinary team player. He has shown that so many times. Immobile has been doing extraordinary things for four years, I’m not surprised.”
This was evident for Lazio’s first goal of the match as the striker showed great effort and strength to beat out two defenders before getting a shot on goal.
Emil Audero made the save, but Caicedo followed up on the rebound and scored the opener. With Senad Lulic sitting out this match to serve a one game suspension, Immobile wore the captain’s armband and didn’t disappoint.
After the match, Immobile spoke to Sky Sports stating: “We wanted to start well, and we should not underestimate any opponent. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“I am proud of my teammates, they always put me in a position to do well. The important thing is to continue like this, to make sure that you keep your feet on the ground: we always repeat it.
“We are happy for our fans who are having fun. Scudetto or Champions League? I set my eyes on the ten more from Roma and Atalanta.
“If we’re there at 7-8 games, why not try to believe it? But for now, the goal is the Champions League.”
Immobile was asked about Higuain’s 36 goal record: “Higuain’s thirty-six goals? Definitely a very nice record. It’s hard, but with these mates and with these people you can go far.
“I’m already thinking about Tuesday’s game against Napoli which is very important.”
Simone Inzaghi was pleased with the effort that Lazio showed in their match against Sampdoria. The Italian manager had encouraging words to say about Immobile.
“We’ll enjoy this eleventh win but we have to already be thinking about the next matches,” he said.
“We know what a derby means but I can’t allow myself to think about Roma.
“We play Napoli on Tuesday, we know what the Italian Cup means for us, what it meant last season, we have it on our shirts and we will fight for it again.”
For Claudio Ranieri, he will surely want to put this match behind him and look forward to their next match against Sassuolo.
“Lazio was too good for us,” Ranieri said.
“You could clearly see the difference between the two teams, it was, without doubt, the worst Samp performance since I’ve been here.”
Lazio will look ahead to a busy week as they visit the Stadio San Paolo to play Napoli in the Coppa Italia before they face Roma on Sunday in the Derby della Capitale.