Maurizio Sarri confesses ‘it was clear within five minutes’ that Lazio would struggle in the Supercoppa with Inter. ‘It irritates me to lose this way, but there is a lesson to be learned.’
The coach said in his press conference that the team had a 30 per cent chance of winning this semi-final, and it looked as if that attitude filtered through to the squad, who seemed to have very little belief despite five consecutive victories in all competition.
“It was clear within four or five minutes. It is clear there is a big difference between us and them, but at the same time the difference is not as large as it appeared to be tonight. We cannot underestimate the degree to which we helped them,” Sarri told Mediaset after a 3-0 defeat.
“This is a team that has always suffered from blackouts after a series of positive results. It irritates me to lose this way. You can lose against Inter, who proved themselves a team of great quality and with perhaps one of the best midfields in Europe, but we have to accept our very large share of the blame for this performance.”
Marcus Thuram opened the scoring early on, followed by a Hakan Calhanoglu penalty and late Davide Frattesi counter-attack.
Apart from that, Lazio did not get a single shot on target, whereas Ivan Provedel made several saves and the crossbar kept out Nicoló Barella and Lautaro Martinez.
President Claudio Lotito went to speak with the coach and squad in the locker room.
“The President was not angry, he was disappointed, just like I was. We were embarrassed in front of a vast television audience. He sees it the way I do: we can lose to Inter, but not like that.”
The problems for Lazio had started even before kick-off, as with Taty Castellanos and Patric already injured, Mattia Zaccagni pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by Pedro.
“I had the sensation that we were late in everything, from their counter-attacks to our moves. I saw a team that to be honest looked afraid at the start. We made mistakes at the slightest bit of pressure, we were timorous in attack and sluggish in defence. We covered very little of the passing channels, so were often stuck halfway.
“The lack of movement from the defenders and the midfielders made it incredibly difficult. When things are done with a bland tempo and always late, that suggests either we are afraid or we are mentally soft.”
It is a huge step down considering Lazio had won their last five in all competition and put themselves back in contention for fourth place in Serie A.
“In every negative experience, there is a lesson to be learned. If we look at the individual players, we are clearly inferior to Inter, although perhaps not to the degree we saw today. If we want to compete with these opponents, then we have to do more than them with tactical intelligence, motivation and determination – which we absolutely did not do tonight.
“That is a big lesson and we have to take it forward.”
Sarri made absolutely no secret of his irritation at everything about this Final Four format, from potentially playing twice to making the long journey to Riyadh for these fixtures.
At least there was a healthy crowd tonight of 20,767, a massive improvement considering yesterday it was under 10,000 for Napoli’s 3-0 win over Fiorentina.
#Supercoppa | #Lazio, #Sarri: "La differenza tra noi e loro esiste, ma abbiamo molti demeriti"https://t.co/TwHaREKMla
— Gianluca Di Marzio (@DiMarzio) January 19, 2024
“While the winners celebrate, the losers are busy complaining & making excuses.”