Maurizio Sarri was unsure if Mattia Zaccagni deserved a penalty but he was certain that the Lazio man didn’t dive in the 1-0 win over Venezia.

The Biancocelesti picked up an important three points this evening thanks to a Ciro Immobile penalty. The result puts them 5th in the Serie A table, leapfrogging Atalanta and Roma after their disappointing draws on the weekend. It’s a tight race for European qualification and next weekend’s derby is another key fixture.

Speaking to Sky Sports Italia after the win over Venezia, Sarri first reacted to the match.

“When you meet teams fighting to avoid relegation in the last third of the season it’s always a difficult game. The spaces were closed, we did well to keep them on the move. We were patient.

“The ball probably had to move at a higher speed in the first half. We didn’t do well after the 1-0 because in the ten minutes after the goal there were plenty of chances to close out the game.

“All in all, given the difficulty of the game, the team did well.”

He touched on the Mattia Zaccagni dive that resulted in a yellow card, which rules him out of next weekend’s derby against Roma.

“I saw the images again ten minutes ago. There is contact. I’m of the opinion that not all contacts are not penalties, but a dive seemed too much.

“It’s a contact between Zaccagni’s knee and the thigh, I’m not saying it was a penalty, but it wasn’t a dive.”

The Lazio coach commented on the qualities of Jose Mourinho’s Roma heading into the derby.

“Roma have been a strong team from the start and in the January transfer market they strengthened even further. They’re a top-class opponent but in these games it’s not important. The derby is a different game.”

Sarri discussed the fact that Lazio have a week to prepare for the derby whilst Roma have to take part in the UEFA Conference League.

“I’ve always said that we haven’t been able to play three games a week and the numbers show that. We have an average of 2.1 points per game without the Europa League and 0.60 with the Europa League.

“Given that we’ve played eight games in Europe, the maths shows that we’ve dropped about ten points. That’s our limit. Of course playing on Thursday is not like playing on Tuesday or Wednesday. It’s difficult.

“In fact the teams that have played on Thursday have not won and I don’t think that’s by chance. In my opinion, playing on Thursday and Sunday, sometimes after not even 72 hours, is an exaggeration, but this is modern football and whoever gets used to it better gets ahead.”

Finally, Sarri ruled out any suggestion that Lazio could challenge for 4th against Juventus.

“At the moment we don’t have to care about fourth. It’s too distant a goal to be credible. Let’s set ourselves match-by-match objectives so that we have tangible goals in which the players believe strongly. Let’s leave this talk for now then if someone collapses we’ll see.”

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