Following I Biancocelesti’s crucial victory over cross-city rivals Roma over the weekend within the Derby della Capitale, Lazio holding-midfielder Danilo Cataldi provided his insight of his side’s display at the Stadio Olimpico.
Despite lacking offensive resources as top hit-man Ciro Immobile was unavailable due to injury and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic was forced to watch from the stands after accumulating too many yellows, Sarri’s side managed to notch the opener after an impressive high press from Pedro to win the ball within the Giallorossi’s zone and set up Felipe Anderson.
Cataldi played a salient role within the central park of the pitch as he finished the Derby with an 80% passing accuracy, winning seven ground duels, and successfully completing two of both tackles and interceptions.
While speaking to the media , as relayed by La Gazzetta dello Sport, the 28 year-old expressed his pride for his team after winning the derby over Mourinho’s squad:
“The match itself was the easiest thing. I will say something unprofessional, after the match against Salernitana that Sergej was disqualified, I only thought about this match. I know there was another important game in between but for me this game is everything. After Holland I have not been able to sleep, I have been up early for two days, I ate very little.
“I’ve been playing this game since I was 12-13 years old. It was difficult but beautiful, I would relive the whole game the post rather than the pre. I think we had a good match against a team that we know are playing dirty. They made many fouls on Zaccagni for example. We are happy because we won a dirty game and this year it never happened before. There have been games that we have won maybe, dominated in the game and in the tactics. We won a derby.
“In the last few minutes it has been difficult but good. As soon as the referee whistled I started to cry. I’ve never experienced a pre-game like this, it was stressful. I was inundated with messages, it was a thinking thing, a big responsibility. I hope I have made them happy and have shown them that dreams are achievable. I didn’t see the team nervous, I was nervous. The team was calm then when we arrived at the stadium we realized what the air was like. Even the new players have understood what the derby is like. I also talked about it with my teammates who made fun of me: these are the pros and cons of living the game as a fan.”