No surprises on Thursday evening: as per pre-match expectations, favorites Lazio earned their ticket for the Coppa Italia semi-finals, beating Torino at the end of a multi-faceted 90 minutes. Indeed, the Biancocelesti were once again the stars of “a tale of two halves”, a cliché-phrase in the world of sports news, but one which describes very accurately what transpired at the Stadio Olimpico of Rome yesterday.

Simply put, Delio Rossi’s team used the two sets of 45 minutes to make a perfect recital of their current season: weaknesses on one side (difficulties in playmaking and lack of concentration at the back), strengths on the other (lethal short-passing & counterattacking abilities). And unfortunately for relegation-battlers Torino (who until half-time had virtually played the perfect game), one of those sets proved to be fatal.

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