Simone Inzaghi thanked the Lazio players who stepped into the breach for their 3-2 victory away to Genoa. “All our players work very hard.”
The Aquile conquered Marassi 3-2 this afternoon, with Adam Marusic, Ciro Immobile and Danilo Cataldi on target.
This means Lazio have already reached 59 points from the first 25 games, equalling the tally they achieved throughout the whole 2018-19 season.
“We knew it’s never easy at Marassi, but I think we put in a good performance against a side in good shape and perhaps we should’ve been sharper in some instances,” the coach told DAZN.
“We were 3-1 up, so after that penalty, the five minutes of stoppages felt very, very long.
“We have to learn from every experience, especially the negative ones, and we had been leading here, hit the woodwork and then lost at the 94th minute last season. Genoa are tough and we’ve always had difficult trips here, so we knew what was waiting for us.”
Francesco Acerbi pulled out in the warm-up, so Denis Vavro was rushed into the defence, which was already missing suspended Luiz Felipe.
“I think of players like Cataldi, Marusic, also Vavro, who is settling in after coming from a very different league. Acerbi never skips a training session, let alone a game, but it happened today and Vavro was ready to step in.
“Acerbi had a little muscular problem on Thursday, he was rested on Friday and Saturday, returned feeling positive. At the end of the warm-up, he felt his calf muscle harden again.
“If it was up to him, he would’ve played anyway, but there are 13 rounds to go, so there’s no point risking it. He’ll have tests tomorrow.
“Marusic is a big option we didn’t have for two months, as he got hurt against Milan. Without Senad Lulic, who brings height to the wings, Marusic is a valuable alternative out wide and he’s earned his place with impressive training sessions.”
Lazio are scoring for fun at the moment, having netted at least three goals in 10 different Serie A games this season.
“Tucu Correa, Felipe Caicedo and Immobile do very hard work to help out in defence, with Luis Alberto and Milinkovic-Savic contributing a great deal not just in quality, but also quantity.
“They cover a lot of kilometres and I was clear with all the forwards that we could only have them all playing together if they did the extra work. They accepted that and are doing it well.”