Maurizio Sarri has acknowledged that Lazio deserved to be eliminated from the Conference League against AZ Alkmaar, and this indicates that the team is not equipped to handle more than one competition simultaneously.
The Biancocelesti replicated their first-leg display, seizing an early lead and then collapsing to a 2-1 defeat against AZ Alkmaar.
Although Felipe Anderson had provided a glimmer of hope for Lazio by equalizing the aggregate score, a long-range shot from Jesper Karlsson that swerved unexpectedly past Ivan Provedel, followed by a goal from Vangelis Pavlidis, resulted in a complete turnaround.
Sarri believes that Lazio deserved to be eliminated
To be honest, the scoreline was kind to Lazio because Ivan Provedel and the woodwork prevented it from being much worse in the second half.
He added: “We deserved to go out.
“We stayed in the game until they equalised, then we stopped believing and stopped playing with the focus needed to get back into the tie. My impression was that after the equaliser, my team completely lost all hope, which was incorrect when there were a good 55 minutes left to play.
“After that, we didn’t have the right physical or mental energy, so it becomes tough at that point.”
Having secured third place in their Europa League group and now being eliminated from the Round of 16 of the Conference League, the Aquile can devote their complete attention to Serie A and striving for a top-four position.
Sarri added: “We don’t have the structure to play more than one competition at a time. I mean that in every sense, numerically, mentally, physically. It is fairly obvious, every time we make five or six changes, we pay the penalty.
“Evidently we are not ready to play at this level and there is a lot of work to be done. We have huge margin for improvement in every sense. This lot put five goals past Real Madrid in the Youth League and we have two in the Primavera 2, so let’s try starting from there.”
