Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri is aware of the importance of tonight’s Europa League clash against Olympique Marseille.
Speaking to gathered reporters in a press conference (via LazioNews24) yesterday, the 62-year-old Italian coach first discussed the quality of the Ligue 1 side.
They showed great dribbling quality in the first leg. They’re a team that defend with one formation and attack with another.
As long as we weren’t raising the tempo they did well. It’s a very difficult match but coming here to the Velodrome and expecting a simple challenge is not the reality.
Also because Ligue 1 is an important league, on the rise, and we don’t expect anything simple.
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He commented on the rumours of his possible contract renewal with Lazio.
This will be evaluated in this week, we will evaluate them all in the next week. I am very happy at Lazio.
I’m very happy with the club, I really like the people who work at Lazio. I have to sit down with the president but I feel very comfortable with him.
Sarri discussed the importance of the match against Olympique Marseille tonight.
It’s not decisive but at the end of the season it could be the decisive match. Right now we haven’t shown the ability to fight on two fronts.
We have scored one point after the three Europa League matches, we are 2 points away from being in the position we wanted.
He spoke about the condition of star striker Ciro Immobile, who was seen training separately yesterday.
Beyond the intestinal virus he had, he also has a small problem with the collateral ligament, in the external part, not extremely dangerous but sore.
He has some problems with changes of direction, I don’t know if he will make it.
The 62-year-old Italian coach touched on the growth of the squad and what they need to show next.
If we want to grow we have to have consistency and right now we don’t have that. They’re a team that for two games have shown how to react to a bad game but that’s not consistency.
I’ve seen the character and performance approach, then if they play like they did against Atalanta they can win, lose, draw but I have to be satisfied with what the guys have done.
This is the basis to do something important in the future.
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He touched on the decision to ban Lazio fans from attending the match in the Velodrome tonight, with the suggestion that the fans were violent and fascist.
If I were Lotito, I would invite him to see Lazio’s games, he can see by himself that he said something stupid.
Finally, Sarri discussed if he will rotate the squad and the conditions of certain players.
The feeling is that the guys were all fine, they all seemed to have recovered well after the last match.
We have Ciro’s little problem, a few niggles from Cataldi but I felt he was better this morning.
We’ll see Milinkovic-Savic who is doing well but has a lot of games to play and we’ll see if he feels the need to play a part of the match instead of the whole match.
We’ll see tomorrow after the muscle warm up at the hotel, then we’ll evaluate the situation.
Lazio’s opponents tonight Olympique Marseille currently sit third in Ligue 1 after 12 games, sitting on 22 points. Their most recent match was a 1-0 win over Clermont on the weekend.
