Ciro Immobile admits Lazio ‘never stepped onto the pitch’ in their 5-1 Europa League defeat to Midtjylland. ‘We took 10 steps back.’
This is the fourth time in their history that Lazio have conceded at least five goals in a UEFA competitive match.
The others were 6-0 to Lens in 1977, 5-3 to Tenerife in 1996 and 5-2 away to Valencia in April 2000.
Considering they had dominated the opening fixture and beaten Feyenoord 4-2, this performance is somewhat inexplicable, yet not entirely new for them either.
The players went over to the 200 supporters who made the trip to Denmark and apologised to them after the final whistle.
“I feel the need to apologise to the supporters who came all the way here from Rome,” Immobile told Sky Sport Italia.
“Tomorrow we will watch it all back and figure out what was missing in our performance that could allow for this result.
“Quite simply, we never stepped onto the pitch. We under-estimated the match and you pay for that at this level. We wanted to make a step forward, but instead we took 10 steps back.
“There is more work to be done, we thought that we had found a certain solidity and consistency, but we lost it again.”