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Tommaso Rocchi and Goran Pandev gave Lazio their desperately-needed 2-0 victory over Catania to break away from the drop zone.
The Biancocelesti were in dire need of a win as they hovered above the relegation zone. Fresh from a Sicilian derby victory, Catania were full of confidence and hoped to cause an upset, although top scorer Jorge Martinez and Giovanni Tedesco sat out bans.
It was a shaky start for Lazio, as after just five minutes Christian Terlizzi nodded a corner kick on to the crossbar with Marco Ballotta well beaten.
That stroke of luck didn't pass them by, as Delio Rossi's men took the lead 120 seconds later. Cristian Ledesma curled a free kick on to the head of Tommaso Rocchi and this time the finish was accurate.
Massimo Mutarelli returned from a ban and really should have done better on 14 minutes when Mourad Meghni sent him clear on goal, only for the midfielder to sidefoot wide of the near post.
Rocchi pounced on a defensive error, but his finish was too weak to trouble Ciro Polito, while Meghni drilled past the target. Last week Ballotta's howler handed Siena a point and he almost did it again when a harmless backpass squirmed under his foot, but he had time to run back after it to clear from an empty net. He apologised to the crowd, but received the expected frustrated response.
After the restart Polito spilled a Mutarelli snapshot, but recovered to bat it away from Stephen Makinwa's close-range follow-up. Catania boss Silvio Baldini made a double change to shake up the side with Morimoto and Biagianti.
Lorenzo Stovini charged down a Rocchi counter-attack and there were timid penalty appeals for an Izco handling offence, but Catania almost bagged an equaliser on 70 minutes. Morimoto didn't get a touch to Vargas' cross, so Ballotta did well to push it away from six yards.
Catania were pouring forward and Giuseppe Mascara was unlucky to slip as he went to volley Gennaro Sardo's splendid cross from the right, while Ballotta smothered a Vargas strike. This left space at the back, but substitute Goran Pandev's pass to the unmarked Rocchi was woeful.
The Sicilians' late surge hit problems five minutes from time when Gionatha Spinesi was shown a straight red card for using foul and abusive language towards the referee. It is not the first time the fiery hitman's mouth has got him into trouble.
Lazio took advantage to secure the points in the final minute. Pandev gathered with his back to goal on the edge of the box, spun round, dribbled past a defender and his finish was strong enough to go in despite Polito's intervention.
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