Staff Reporter.
Tammy Abraham became the first English player to score in a Rome derby since Paul Gascoigne as his double helped Jose Mourinho’s Roma brush aside Lazio.
Abraham hooked home the opener inside a minute after Lorenzo Pellegrini’s in-swinging corner came back off the bar.
He acrobatically volleyed in a close-range second from Rick Karsdorp’s cross before Pellegrini crashed home a superb 25-yard free-kick to seal the points.
Roma climbed above their city rivals into fifth in the Serie A standings on 51 points, eight points behind Juventus in fourth.
Mourinho’s side remain eight points adrift of the Champions League places with eight games remaining, while Lazio are a further two points back.
The game was just 56 seconds old when Abraham became the first Englishman to reach 14 goals in a Serie A season since Gerry Hitchens for Inter Milan 60 years ago.
The 24-year-old also became only the second English player to net in a Rome derby, following Gascoigne’s strike for Lazio in 1992.
He should have equalled another landmark – Trevor Francis’ record of being the last English player to score a Serie A hat-trick, back in 1983 – but fired a great chance wide midway through the second half.