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Serie A: Immobile fires Lazio to Bologna win

Ciro Immobile fired Lazio to a 2-1 win over Bologna on Sunday in a thrilling Serie A season opener which both sides finished with 10 men.

Italy striker Immobile coolly slotted home the decisive goal with 11 minutes remaining to complete a comeback which looked unlikely when the hosts went a man down in the fourth minute.

Goalkeeper Luis Maximiano was sent off for handling outside his own area, and Maurizio Sarri’s side were a goal down in the 38th minute following another couple of blunders from Alessio Romagnoli and Mattia Zaccagni.

A poor clearance from defender Romagnoli, signed from AC Milan in the summer, left Zaccagni trying to whack the ball away only to instead kick Nicola Sansone and give away a penalty which Marko Arnautovic tucked away.

Lazio were level in terms of on-pitch personnel going in at the break after Adama Soumaoro picked up two bookings in the space of five minutes at the end of the first half.

And they were back on level terms in the 68th minute thanks to Lorenzo De Silvehorrorstri’s own goal, the Italian watching on in horror as Manuel Lazzari’s cross was patted onto him by goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski and then rolled into his own net.

Lazio were in the ascendency and it was no surprise when the club’s all-time top scorer netted the winner after being put through by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

Elsewhere, Cremonese were denied a point from their first top-flight match since 1996 after an Ionut Radu blunder handed Fiorentina a 3-2 win in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

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Goalkeeper Radu, whose horrendous mistake for Inter Milan helped AC Milan win the Serie A title last season, somehow managed to carry Rolando Mandragora’s cross into his own net.

Matteo Bianchetti’s leveller in the 68th minute had left Cremonese hoping for a draw which would have come despite being down to 10 men for more than half the match following Gonzalo Escalante’s red card for a bad foul on Christian Kouame.

But Radu’s awful mistake left the league’s new boys with a gutting defeat to digest.

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