After the victory in Cremona, the Lazio coach lashes out against the Serie A League’s decision to bring forward the match against Roma to avoid concurrently with the Internazionali final: “It’s an insult to the city and the two teams”. Giampaolo, on the other hand, is bitter: “It’s a defeat”
The victory over Cremonese which opens a window for seventh place? The upcoming Italian Cup final worth a season? No, at the top of Maurizio Sarri’s thoughts is “only” the time of the derby on the penultimate day (scheduled four days after the final against Inter). It is not yet official, but the president of the League Simonelli has announced that it will be played at 12.30. A choice that the Commander just can’t accept. “It’s an insult to the city of Rome and to the two Roman teams – thunders Sarri -. We already had to play the first leg at 12.30 in September with 37 degrees and now again they have decided to do it at the same time. It has been known for two years that the final of the tennis internationals would take place on that day. That in the last two days there would be simultaneity between the matches as well. Whoever in the League made the calendar and planned the derby on the penultimate day should resign. I hope that someone you pay for this decision. I don’t accept it and in protest I will skip the pre- and post-match interviews and, after taking a seat on the bench, I will immediately go to the locker room.”
present and future
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The time of the derby infuriates him, but to lift Sarri’s morale is a Lazio team that extends the positive momentum (five victories in the last eight matches). And once again he takes a game in the final minutes. “This team has a soul and manages to bring it out in decisive moments. When I saw that recovery time was five minutes long I told the boys to persist because I felt they could do it.” In addition to the character aspect, however, there is also the technical one that comforts the Commander. “We have improved a lot in our dribbling, the undesirable effect of this is that by doing so we become less incisive up front. In the second half we dribbled less but we were more effective. The ideal would be to do something in between.” In addition to the victory (which brings Atalanta closer to seventh place, now at 4 points) it is Rovella’s return to the field. “It gave me pleasure and satisfaction to see him back on the pitch – Sarri again -. I hope that in ten days (Italian Cup final, ed) we will understand how much we missed…”. Then on his future: “There are four games left, two of which are very important. At the end of the season I will speak with the managers and we will see if there are the conditions to respect my contract (which expires in 2028, ed)”.
Giampaolo disappointment
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Effervescent climate in Lazio’s locker room, leaden in Cremonese’s. The defeat against the Biancocelesti opens a semi-abyss with Lecce’s fourth-to-last place. Salvation is still possible, but very difficult. “It’s a defeat – admits Marco Giampaolo -. We lost in a crazy way a match that we would have deserved to draw at the very least. It’s a knockout that hurts a lot. Now the only thing to do is to reorganize our ideas and quickly restore the right mood. In retirement? Absolutely not. If we were at the beginning of the season the judgment on our performance would be positive, but now every single point weighs a lot, in fact even a draw would have been useful. Unfortunately we paid dearly for two mistakes that we could have made, but shouldn’t have stay there.”
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