Saturday saw Andreas Pereira player his first full Serie A match for Lazio. It was his second start, but on the previous occasion, against Torino, he was taken off the pitch at half time.
Given he hadn’t been involved as much as had been expected, prior to Saturday’s match against Spezia Calcio, Lazio’s sporting director Iglo Tare had come out and defended the Manchester United owned player.
He insisted it was just a case of Pereira taking time to settle him, which he explained was perfectly natural, and fully backed the signing to work out: “I don’t think the value of someone who comes from Manchester United should be questioned. It’s a matter of acclimatisation, he needed time like all the other newcomers to be in the group. Sometimes one gets in the way, other times not, but Pereira’s qualities are indisputable.”
Lazio beat Spezia 2-1, and whilst Pereira wasn’t one of the best performers on the pitch, he had a steady game and will be hoping to have further prominence in the matches to come.
After the victory, he was quoted by CalcioNews24 as saying: “I am very happy to play my first full 90 minutes. I really wanted the goal to be validated, but the most important 
thing is the victory. Now let’s think about the next battle and know that we will give our lives for the first knockout round of the Champions League!”
The Manchester United man had a goal ruled out by VAR, taking away what would have been a huge boost to the player, and later took to Instagram to display his annoyance at that strike being dismissed by the secondary officials.
