Conference League – Sarri: “Beating Az Alkmaar or Roma? There are games that give you more flavour”

From our correspondent Stefano Cieri

March 15th
– Alkmaar (Netherlands)

He reiterates that winning the derby would give him more pleasure, but that doesn’t mean he intends to give up the cup. Indeed, as soon as he landed in Alkmaar, Maurizio Sarri is keen to better clarify the meaning of the words spoken after the match against Bologna, which had made one think of a choice of field between the Conference League and the championship (in favor of the latter). “I didn’t say – explains the Lazio coach – that I prefer to win the derby rather than the match against Az. I always want to win and I always try to win. But there are matches that give you more pleasure to win. And the derby it’s one of them.”

Comeback

—

We will start talking about Rome from tomorrow evening, however. Now there is only the match with the Dutch team. Lazio must make up for the 2-1 defeat suffered in the first leg at the Olimpico. “The only way to go through – specifies Sarri – is to play with motivation and great involvement from the whole group”. And the coach is sure that, from this point of view, Lazio will not betray. “Let’s stop talking nonsense and calling football players idiots. Someone who earns thousands of euros a month cannot have an alibi, he cannot give priority to one match instead of another”.

The choices

—

Having said that, Sarri will send a Lazio very close to the best on the field. Turnover limited to the maximum and dictated more by ailments than by the need to preserve fresh strength in view of the derby. “There will be changes based on what we’ve seen in the last few days, but also based on what the doctor says. Unfortunately, the World Cup held in the middle of the season forced us to play an impressive number of games in a short time. The players they tire more and are more exposed to injuries. The show inevitably suffers as well. But it seems to me that these things no longer interest anyone. Just as if I said that the field on which we will play tomorrow is indecent. I was the only one left dinosaur who sees these things in football.And now I’m also reading about a World Cup (the next one, ed) that will be extended and I object to thinking that next week we will have to give players back to the national teams after they lost them for two months between November and December”. Better to think only of tomorrow’s match: “The first leg showed that they are good in certain situations that we have conceded, but they too will concede to us and we will have to be good at exploiting them”.