Maurizio Sarri expects a tough derby against a ‘top class Roma’ following Lazio’s win over Venezia.
The Biancocelesti secured all three points in the 1-0 win over the Serie A strugglers, with Ciro Immobile’s second half penalty proving sufficient enough to secure the victory. The evening was a little spoilt by Mattia Zaccagni’s silly yellow card for diving, ruling him out of the upcoming derby against the Giallorossi.
Speaking to Sky Sports Italia (via LazioNews24) after the game, Sarri first reacted to the win over Venezia.
When you meet teams fighting to avoid relegation in the last third of the season it’s always a difficult game. The spaces were closed, we did well to keep them on the move. We were patient.
The ball probably had to move at a higher speed in the first half. We didn’t do well after the 1-0 because in the ten minutes after the goal there were plenty of chances to close out the game.
All in all, given the difficulty of the game, the team did well.
Sarri then commented on the yellow card given to Zaccagni for diving, ruling him out of Lazio’s derby against Venezia.
I saw the images again ten minutes ago. There is contact. I’m of the opinion that not all contacts are penalties, but a dive seemed too much.
There was a contact between Zaccagni’s knee and the defender’s thigh, I’m not saying it was a penalty, but it wasn’t a dive.
He highlighted the strengths of Jose Mourinho’s Roma ahead of the Derby della Capitale.
Roma have been a strong team from the start and in the January transfer market they strengthened even further.
They’re a top-class opponent but in these games it’s not important. The derby is a different game.
The Italian coach touched on the advantage of having a week to prepare for the game.
I’ve always said that we haven’t been able to play three games a week and the numbers show that. We have an average of 2.1 points per game without the Europa League and 0.60 with the Europa League.
Given that we’ve played eight games in Europe, the maths shows that we’ve dropped about ten points. That’s our limit. Of course playing on Thursday is not like playing on Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s difficult.
In fact the teams that have played on Thursday have not won and I don’t think that’s by chance. In my opinion, playing on Thursday and Sunday, sometimes after not even 72 hours, is an exaggeration, but this is modern football and whoever gets used to it better gets ahead.
Finally, Sarri suggested that the team were not currently looking to fight for a top four spot.
At the moment we don’t have to care about fourth. It’s too distant a goal to be credible. Let’s set ourselves match-by-match objectives so that we have tangible goals in which the players believe strongly.
Let’s leave this talk for now then if someone collapses we’ll see.
