Maurizio Sarri not deceived by Celtic away day struggles as Lazio boss bristles at predictable suggestion
The Hoops don’t have a great record on the road in Europe
Maurizio Sarri is wary of the threat Celtic will pose his Lazio side and is paying no attention to their apparent away day struggles.
The Hoops travel to Rome to take on the Serie A giants on Champions League duty tomorrow with just one point earned from their group games so far, coming at home to Atletico Madrid. Their two matches away from home ended in comfortable wins for Atleti (6-0) and Feyenoord (2-0) and going further back they’ve generally struggled to pick up points on the road.
But Sarri points out the results are skewed somewhat by Brendan Rodgers’ side having men sent off in both the games and he expects them to present a difficult task for his men. Lazio have not been in good form domestically and he’s trying to ensure they remain focused against a dangerous opponent.
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The Italian said: “Celtic are a good team, they have good rhythm, decent technical qualities. They are not an easy team to beat.
“We must not delude ourselves about the negative results away from home because they were games conditioned by numerical inferiority. It’s a good team and it will certainly be a complicated match.
“Now we’re preparing for the match. I said what I had to say yesterday. Now it’s time to regroup, with the great hope that the atmosphere that exists is in the Champions League, give us something more.”
“This year the retreat was done at good levels from all points of view. After the retreat something changed. The atmosphere was of an excellent level. We need to reset. There is no longer an old or new guard. These are the players available, we choose the best ones without any problem. It is useless to talk about tactics if this is the attitude.
“It’s useful if you play at the same level as your opponents. If you’re not there, there’s no tactic that works. It’s difficult to identify the real reasons, but if the manager changes and the players change and the problem remains, perhaps the reason is environmental.”
