Maurizio Sarri feels the 4-0 victory over Milan was ‘perhaps the best performance’ since he came to Lazio, but also warns they weren’t the worst team before and aren’t the greatest now.
The Biancocelesti have well and truly found their form despite losing striker Ciro Immobile, as they won 2-0 away to Sassuolo and this evening completely dominated reigning champions of Italy Milan.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic opened the scoring within four minutes, followed by Mattia Zaccagni’s tap-in, a Luis Alberto penalty and Felipe Anderson finishing a well-worked team move.
“As soon as the referee blew the final whistle, I thought we have a very difficult match coming up against Fiorentina,” Sarri told DAZN.
“We are in a wonderful, passionate, but also very strange place to work, because a few days ago we were treated like the worst team in Italy and tonight the best team in Italy. Getting the lads to maintain their balance right now is the most important aspect.”
Milinkovic-Savic said after the game that if Lazio can continue like this, there’s no reason they cannot challenge for the Serie A title in future, but the coach is again eager to dampen down excessive enthusiasm.
“We cannot have ideas like that, only dreams. As I said, the important thing is to focus on the next game. We must not look at things long-term, we just have to take it one game at a time and maintain the same adrenaline we had tonight. Unfortunately, that has often been our downfall.”
With Immobile out injured, Lazio are able to create a gap in that centre-forward slot where players like Milinkovic-Savic, Pedro and Luis Alberto can push up and get shots away.
“One of the aspects we worked on to prepare the game was making the most of the Milan’s tendency to open up spaces between defenders, knowing Felipe Anderson’s movement could create even more spaces. We did it pretty well.
“In the first half, we also did well creating chances by playing out from the back. We hope to get Ciro back soon, and we’ll see the test results tomorrow, and then we can perhaps give a rest to those who are playing constantly up there.
“I am accustomed to a packed fixture list, but I don’t like it, because that takes away the greatest joy I have in this sport, which is being on the training ground during the week. I had a season in England with 65 competitive games, so considerably more than we will have this time.”
Adam Marusic was a surprise pick to counter Rafael Leao, but in general Sarri has transformed Lazio’s defence, conceding 19 fewer than at this stage last season.
“It was perhaps the best performance since I’ve been here, but recently the players have been willing to sacrifice themselves for the team in a way that honestly surprised me. If we can remove that tendency to drop points in silly fashion against sides who are on paper inferior, then we can do even better.”
Considering their surge to joint third place, Lazio can no longer disguise they are in the running for a Champions League spot.
“We never hid, nor stood up, we just said that we would do the maximum of our abilities and see what happens. I already expressed my opinion that there are on paper other teams better equipped, but we still take it one game at a time and see what comes of it.”
This 4-0 result against Milan also did a huge favour for Sarri’s beloved Napoli, allowing them to open up a massive 12-point lead at the top of the table.
“We did a favour for ourselves more than anything, as last season Milan caused us huge problems in all three games and we always lost, so this was a sign of how much Lazio have grown. If Napoli are doing well, it can only make me happy.”