Serie A Rising Dark Horse: Gattuso Leads Lazio to Three Straight Wins and a Push for Top Three_Inter Milan_Napoli_Roma

This summer, Serie A experienced multiple coaching changes, and Lazio also made a major adjustment by appointing former national team coach Gennaro Gattuso as their new manager. Although he failed to lead the national team to World Cup qualification during his tenure, the decision was once widely debated and Gattuso's coaching ability was questioned. However, Lazio have always believed in his potential, and events have now shown that their choice was the right one.

In the final match of the third round of Serie A, played on September 8 Beijing time, Lazio visited Udinese. In their previous four meetings over the past two seasons, Lazio had failed to beat Udinese, but this match produced a completely different result. After a fierce contest, Lazio completed a 2-1 comeback victory away from home and secured three consecutive wins at the start of the new season.

All goals in the match came in the second half. Shortly after the restart, in the 49th minute, Udinese's Karlstrom scored a quick goal to open the scoring. Facing a deficit, Lazio launched their comeback, and in the 75th minute, Zaccagni provided an assist for Frattesi to score easily and level the match. Then, near the end of the game in the 89th minute, Gudmundsson headed the ball into the net to complete a dramatic turnaround for Lazio.

Despite playing away, Lazio enjoyed 60% possession and recorded 19 shots, nearly twice as many as their opponents. In terms of both overall performance and the flow of the match, they deserved the valuable three points. After this game, Lazio not only achieved three consecutive victories but also became the third Serie A team to maintain a perfect record.

In the standings, Lazio are currently third due to goal difference, behind Inter Milan and Roma. In the previous two rounds, Lazio had defeated Bologna and Genoa by narrow 1-0 margins, showing that the team under Gattuso has undergone a transformation. They are now undoubtedly one of Serie A's biggest dark horses.

Looking at the current situation, the new Serie A season is highly competitive, with six teams—Roma, Inter Milan, Lazio, AC Milan, Juventus and Como—showing the ability to compete for the title. In particular, the two Rome clubs have both displayed excellent form. At the beginning of the 21st century, both Roma and Lazio were once dominant forces in Serie A. Although they won league titles between 1999 and 2001, they later fell into decline and have not lifted the trophy again in the past 20 years.

Fortunately, Lazio and Roma have begun to recover this season and joined the title race, making Serie A more exciting and diverse. If Napoli can quickly return to form as well, we may see the revival of the title-contending spectacle once associated with the famous 'Seven Sisters' era.