Baroni: "Inter favourites in Italy and Europe, but Lazio wants to go all the way"

Lazio are looking to relaunch themselves in the Coppa Italia after being overtaken in fourth place by Juventus in the last round of the championship. Marco Baroni took stock of the Biancocelesti on the eve of tomorrow night's Coppa Italia quarter-final match at Inter. "The Coppa Italia is an important competition. We know that a difficult match awaits us but we want to do well and advance to the next round," the Lazio coach told Mediaset. "These are competitions where presence is not important, but rather getting to the end. These matches help you grow, they give depth to the team, the higher the difficulty level, the closer it gets to what we are working towards between objectives and important matches." Two months ago, in the championship match at the Olimpico, Lazio suffered a very hard 6-0 from Simone Inzaghi's team. "There is no sense of revenge. That match had two sides: the first 25 minutes, which were the best of our season, and the second half, also due to forced substitutions, the ugliest," Baroni added. The team didn't change the type of match and that's why we got that result. It was very useful for us, at San Siro it will be a different match. Inter is the team to beat in Italy and in Europe: we are aware of that, but we want to put in an important performance. We have our own identity made of courage, rhythm and play".

There are traces of Saturday's 0-0 in Venice that has raised many regrets looking at the Champions League prospects to be nurtured in the championship. "We accept the praise and the criticism. I think it was a match in which the team showed maturity. Perhaps we lacked offensive rhythm. When Lazio doesn't create many opportunities in attack it seems like they didn't play the game, instead the team was inside the performance". The absence of Castellanos was felt and he will also be unavailable against Inter. "He's missing. But we know this. There are players who change teams, but it mustn't be an excuse". At the centre of the attack in Venice, Noslin started. For tomorrow, the Tchaouna solution is gaining ground, according to the indications of this morning's training before leaving for Milan. Dele-Bashiru was injured in Venice. “He had a sprain (an ankle, ed.) and will certainly not be available for the match against Inter, probably also for the match at San Siro against Milan (Sunday in the championship)”. Rovella, suspended in Venice, will be back in midfield in place of the Nigerian. Reda Belahyane, making his debut in Biancoceleste, performed well on Saturday. The former Verona midfielder replaced Penzo. “Reda is very young, he will have an important future, he has personality and he is not afraid. This is already an important factor. He must play with this courage”.

Lazio chasing ambitions in the Coppa Italia but also focused on the race for the Champions League in the league. Baroni expresses all his energy. “We know that this part of the season is decisive. The games are more important and the margin for error is reduced. We are ready, we must not be afraid. Juventus now in fourth place? The standings are looked at at the end, otherwise it is just a waste of energy. Our gaze must be low, with humility, attention and a focus on work. Objectives are not changed during the race. For the competition, the Champions League was a certain objective, we found ourselves there and now we want to stay there until the end. The important thing is that ours is a project that has changed and the team must stay within the work to be done”.