Maurizio Sarri believes that his Lazio side ‘surrendered at the worst moment’ to Inter in their heartbreaking 3-1 loss.
The Biancocelesti took an early lead after 30 minutes thanks to Felipe Anderson, but were unable to hold onto their lead as the Nerazzurri continued to pile on the pressure.
Lautaro Martinez drew Inter level in the 77th minute and Robin Gosens gave his team the lead just five minutes later, breaking Lazio hearts.
In the 90th minute, a mistake by Matias Vecino allowed Lautaro to close out the game with his second, confirming the Biancocelesti’s second consecutive defeat.
Speaking to Sky Sports Italia (via La Lazio Siamo Noi), Sarri first discussed Lazio’s drop in focus in their defeat to Inter.
At the most important moment we surrendered. We conceded a goal softly, losing a ball that could not be lost. I didn’t like that phase of the match, when Inter shouted at us, we surrendered.
Until the 20th minute of the second half, that was not the case. We dropped not so much in the physical aspect, but in the aspect of surrender.
He was asked about the Biancocelesti’s back-to-back defeats and their possible drop in form.
Inter did badly in a certain period, but in this decisive moment they made a change. I’m talking about energy capacity, we are the team that runs the most. I have to be a mechanic at certain times. For a long stretch of the match, I saw Lazio inside the game.
We came close to doubling the score at the end of the first half, we also missed some counter-attacks.
But we also have to remain focused, because if at the start of the year we’d been told that we would be in this position in the table at this point, we would all have been happy.
The Lazio coach spoke about Robin Gosens’ crucial 82nd minute strike and the team’s failure to capitalise beforehand.
We had time to go ahead, we could have been much more inside and given Marusic the chance to be much deeper.
The defence was subjected to too many risks today and so we had to get some of them wrong. We were constantly exposed.
Finally, Sarri was asked about his decision to take off talismanic striker Ciro Immobile.
Clearly, he wasn’t at his best, he’s growing, he’s training but he’s still not at his best. The team was suffering, and I thought more of a dribbling player to take some of the pressure off.
