Lazio boss Maurizio Sarri hopes the club won’t decide to prepare for the second part of the season in Argentina during the World Cup break and explains why their win over Atalanta was not relevant.
The Biancocelesti are preparing to face Midtjylland at home on Thursday in the fifth match of Europa League Group F.
They lost 5-1 in the reverse fixture in Denmark.
“We must become big in Italy before doing the same in Europe, as Milan and Napoli did,” Sarri said at a press conference.
“The path in Europe is affected by a game we got wrong. We picked up a draw in Austria and against Strum Graz playing with ten men for 45 minutes.”
Lazio have kept six consecutive clean sheets in Serie A and are five points behind table leaders Napoli, but have been unable to show the same consistency in Europe.
This past Sunday, they beat Atalantaaway 2-0 despite being without their star Ciro Immobile.
“A team with a great mentality also has motivation. I don’t give much relevance to the win in Bergamo, which still came from an occasional performance” noted Sarri.
“We faced a strong team that we feared, and the stadium was full, so it was easy to give our best.
“We’ll make a real step forward once we play the same way in an almost empty stadium against an almost relegated team.”
Immobile isn’t available for the upcoming European fixture, but also Manuel Lazzari and Luis Alberto are in doubt, while Matias Vecino is expected to start.
“Lazzari picked up a knock. Luis Alberto had a problem with his hip, but mentally he is fine. Let’s see how he does today in a more intense training session,” explained Sarri.
“Vecino e is a complete player, he helps with his runs in the space in defence thanks to his physicality. We were convinced he could add something to this team.”
Lazio are in the process of deciding where to continue training during the World Cup break and Sarri sent an explicit request for the club: “We’ll have to go somewhere, I hope not to Argentina because it would technically be crazy. We’ll play games at 5°-6° in January and we can’t prepare for those training under the sun at 30°, travelling for 15 hours.”
Training retreat in Siberia then!!