Maurizio Sarri had a surprising outburst toward the atmosphere at Lazio in the pre-game presser before facing Atletico Madrid (via Il Messaggero).
“We already pulled off a miracle by reaching the Round of 16. They are clearly at another level, but we’ll play our cards. The Biancocelesti’s environment is devastating, not the club, but what surrounds it. They create unreachable expectations that cause frustration. Not in my case, since I’m old and can look past it. Instead, youngsters struggle with it.”
“We’re coming off two wins and a draw and it seems like a funeral. They would have launched fireworks on the other sides of the town. Lazio qualified for this stage of the competition twice in the 2000s. We’re among the best 16 teams in Europe.”
Sarri doubled down on his take.
“This environment needs to calm down, not light up. If it becomes more logical, it could even be optimistic. It’s out of place to expect abstruse things. Anyway, our fans almost always show up. They are hungry for Champions League football since we rarely got this far in the last 20 years. The biggest source of anger from the Verona game was disappointing all the supporters that were there.”
Sarri looked back at last season.
“We finished second because three teams that were in running for the top four dropped points, and we took advantage of that, but the levels of the squads were very different. I’m not so sure Feyenoord aren’t stronger than us.”
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