Maurizio Sarri believes his Lazio side were apprehensive in the first half against: ‘We’re up to our necks in water in the Champions League’. It was a torrid night for Biancocelesti, losing 3-1 to Feyenoord and dropping to third place in their qualifying group. Speaking of his sides performance, Sarri explained why he thought they were too timid in the opening half, and why they played with a degree of fear in their game:
“We played a timid first half, we were scared by their aggressiveness, by their pressure, then when we conceded the first goal it was in the air and it could have been prevented. When we conceded the second goal it was a moment of the match. We could have ended the first half 1-0, even though they deserved 2-0.
“In the second half we had several chances. Looking at the data, the number of goal-attempts is 6 to 5 for them. I didn’t like the first half because of this submissiveness towards an aggressive team, even though we knew what was waiting for us. I was thinking of an attitude with much more personality.”
“I saw fear in playing the ball, it probably stems from their aggressiveness. When teams are so aggressive, with the ball if you put them in trouble then you find huge spaces, instead we were worried about making mistakes all the time. Making mistakes like that then they really came at us.”
“Pace? I don’t have the physical data yet, but I’m not convinced. I saw a big difference in the emotional and nervous energy. They have a very high level of pace”.
“Defence? There is still a lot to work on in every phase of the pitch. Pressing with that intensity in the first half doesn’t make sense. Our strength is not to let teams go back inside, so that means we were doing everything wrong. To concede goals with four touches in our own area is symptomatic of the wrong level of aggression.
“In the last 25 minutes we did more than them but it was late. Return leg? We have two home games and we must exploit them as much as possible, and then play the last one. We’ll see what condition we’re in in the standings. In a round of six games, if you lose one it starts to be problematic. Let’s wait because there is still a long way to go. If the attitude is the same as tonight, however, we won’t make it. In this competition we are at our wits’ end, we have to walk on tiptoe with the water up to our necks. Either we give 101 % or we struggle a lot.”
