Maurizio Sarri cannot disguise his irritation with the packed fixture list as injuries pile up for Lazio ahead of the Conference League trip to AZ Alkmaar. ‘At least I’m old and close to retirement.’
The first leg had started well for the Aquile with a Felipe Anderson goal early on, but it all fell apart for a 2-1 defeat at the Stadio Olimpico.
That makes it a very tough task to turn this around and reach the Conference League quarter-finals, needing to win by two clear goals on Thursday at 20.00 GMT.
It was argued that the Biancocelesti seemed ‘unmotivated’ in that fixture compared to their Serie A performances.
“The only way to get through tomorrow is to play with hunger and motivation. I want to win every game, so those who earn hundreds of thousands of Euros must have no alibis,” said Sarri in his press conference.
“AZ Alkmaar are very good at stealing the ball and going on the counter in a matter of seconds. When they defend deep, however, they allow us scoring opportunities, but we didn’t make the most of them in the first leg.”
Ciro Immobile is out of both this game and the Derby della Capitale against Roma on Sunday evening with a recurring thigh injury, but Sarri continues to vent his frustration with the fixture list.
“Before doing well in Europe, our priority has to be doing well in Italy first. Obviously, we will try to qualify and cause AZ Alkmaar problems tomorrow.
“We have played every three days since January 3 due to the madness of the World Cup, which inevitably leads to injuries and poor football being on show, but nobody seems to care about that. Nor do they care that we’ll be playing on a shameful pitch.
“It makes me laugh that we’ve also got the break for international duty coming up. At least I am fortunate enough to be old and therefore close to retirement.”
Luis Alberto was the latest Lazio player to suffer from a stomach bug that made its way through the squad, affecting amongst others Mattia Zaccagni and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
“Luis Alberto was sick that night, but then recovered, he looked good in training and clearly the virus takes something out of you. Milinkovic only played three of the last five games, I don’t know whether it is the right choice to look more at the short-term or long-term with him, especially with international duty.
“I will make a few changes listening to what the doctors tell me and hope to still put out a competitive team.”