Stefano Pioli said Lazio” data-scaytid=”2″>Lazio “can only tip our hats” to Juventus” data-scaytid=”3″>Juventus, but regrets letting their heads drop so early.
Stefano Pioli said Lazio “can only tip our hats” to Juventus, but regrets letting their heads drop so early.
This 3-0 result was the Aquile’s second consecutive defeat, as they fell to Empoli” data-scaytid=”8″>Empoli before the break for international duty.
“Juventus proved once again tonight they are a great team, so we can only tip our hats to them,” Pioli told Sky Sport Italia.
“Having said that, the team should’ve reacted differently to the opening goal. Until that moment it was a balanced encounter and we could’ve stayed in the game for longer, so that is the regret.
“When you make certain mistakes against a side of this quality, you’re more likely to emerge defeated.
“It’s true we didn’t create that much, but we did have chances with De Vrij, Keita and Candreva. We wanted to play between the lines and didn’t do that enough, but after the second goal it became a real problem to get back into it, above all psychologically.
“Nobody made the right run at the right time on the Tevez goal and many positions were wrong. It wasn’t really a counter-attack, as everyone was supposed to be in position and we weren’t. We cannot have players who mark the box without any opponents as reference points.
“We had intended to push forward and press Juventus in their own half, which we managed early on, but sometimes we kept doing it even when our players were out of position and that left too many spaces.
“In the first half we should’ve moved the ball wide more and go round Juve, as they created a lot of density in the middle. Unfortunately Juve are a strong side and we ran into problems.”