Maurizio Sarri gave an update on his Lazio the press from the Formello press room ahead of their Champions League match with Bayern Munich. The Biancocelesti host the Bundesliga champions on Wednesday evening, and ahead of the match, Sarri spoke about the prospect of facing the Bavarians over two legs:
“How do we approach this match? By thinking it’s not impossible. If we believe it’s impossible, we start already defeated. They are favorites, but we must have confidence and enthusiasm. We must have the confidence to try at all costs. It will take a lot of audacity. On paper, they are favorites, but we’ll see on the field.”
He continued, “When there’s suffering, we must do it together. There will be suffering, there will be difficulties to face. Against teams of this caliber, we must do the opposite of what we did against Inter in the Supercoppa. There, we were at the mercy of events, events that need to be controlled.”
Sarri also emphasized the importance of regaining enthusiasm: “Moments of heaviness inevitably emerge, as in all jobs. Certain things become heavy, but we must not forget that we play, and we play to have fun. However, we must not be superficial. We must rediscover the sense of fun on the field, with all the responsibilities we must take on. If we extinguish the child who loved playing soccer, even the man enjoys himself less. We do something we love for work, something we would have done for free or paying. Let’s start from this premise.”
Regarding the players’ conditions, Sarri mentioned Vecino, Patric, Rovella, and Zaccagni: “Vecino is not feeling particularly well; it shouldn’t be serious, but we’ll see tomorrow. Bayern… I expect a strong team. These are teams that may make mistakes in some league games, but not in the Champions League. Patric has trained, Zaccagni still feels a bit of pain, Rovella has a beginning of pubalgia that has now worsened.”
Sarri then discussed Luis Alberto’s role and his team’s current situation: “Luis Alberto is our most offensive midfielder. Sometimes he drops deep to get the ball. I’ve played a lot with the attacking midfielder, but he’s not the type of attacking midfielder who attacks the spaces. He is very skilled in ball management. I’m happy with that. Are we struggling? Excuse me for saying this, but for me, it’s rubbish. We’ve earned 29 points in the last games. We’re paying for a difficult start, we made some serious mistakes that unfortunately we’re still paying for.”
The Lazio coach ruled out the possibility of playing with an extra defender: “I can’t ask for enthusiasm and confidence and then field an extra defender. The field will have to force us to play a different game than we would like.”
Finally, Sarri reflected on his journey at Lazio: “What the club needs will be addressed by the president; I’ve told him what I think. We all talk, we talk about many possible variations, then you look at the individual championships, and the clubs with the highest turnover always win. Then there are extraordinary cases. Investments are decisive.”
