Pro Sports

Atalanta and Lazio warm up for CL with wins in Serie A

Posted March 12, 2021 6:00 am

The Associated Press

Atalanta's Mario Pasalic celebrates after scoring during the Italian serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Spezia at the Gewiss stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Friday, March 12, 2021. (Stefano Nicoli/LaPresse via AP) The Associated Press

ROME (AP) - Atalanta and Lazio warmed up for Champions League games with victories in Serie A on Friday.

Atalanta defeated visiting Spezia 3-1 with two goals from Mario PaÅ¡aliÄ‡, while substitute Felipe Caicedo scored a late winner for Lazio to beat last-placed Crotone 3-2.

Atalanta moved into fourth place and the final Champions League spot while Lazio remained seventh.

Atalanta will try to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit when it visits Real Madrid in the round of 16 on Tuesday. Then Lazio needs to make up for a 4-1 first-leg loss when it plays at Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Luis Muriel also scored for Atalanta, which got all of its goals in the second half.

Roberto Piccoli, who is on loan from Atalanta, pulled one back for Spezia nine minutes from time.

Sergej MilinkoviÄ‡-SaviÄ‡ and Luis Alberto also scored for Lazio, while Simy Nwankwo had a brace for Crotone.

'œThis victory gives us motivation,'ť Lazio coach Simone Inzaghi said. 'œWe have a game in hand and if we can keep winning we can get back into the top four. There are a lot of points still up for grabs in terms of achieving our goal - getting back into the Champions League.'ť

With his 10th and 11th goals of the season, Simy matched Obafemi Martins for most goals by a Nigerian in a single Serie A campaign. Martins also scored 11 for Inter Milan in 2004-05.

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More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Lazio's Felipe Caicedo, left, celebrates after scoring his side's 3rd goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome's Olympic stadium, Friday, March 12, 2021. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP) The Associated Press

Lazio's Felipe Caicedo scores his side's 3rd goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome's Olympic stadium, Friday, March 12, 2021. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP) The Associated Press

Lazio's Sergej Milinkovic-Savic heads the ball in a scoring attempt during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome's Olympic stadium, Friday, March 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) The Associated Press

Lazio's Luis Alberto celebrates after scoring his side's 2nd goal during a Serie A soccer match between Lazio and Crotone at Rome's Olympic stadium, Friday, March 12, 2021. (Alfredo Falcone/LaPresse via AP) The Associated Press

Spezia's Matteo Ricci, left, and Luca Vignali, right, battle for the ball with Atalanta's Luis Muriel during the Italian serie A soccer match between Atalanta and Spezia at the Gewiss stadium in Bergamo, Italy, Friday, March 12, 2021. (Stefano Nicoli/LaPresse via AP) The Associated Press

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