Galatasaray Vs Lazio 1-0, Sarri: Don't Judge Us From This Defeat

Maurizio Sarri (Instagram @OfficialSSLazio)

JAKARTA - Lazio suffered a second defeat in a row. After losing 0-2 to AC Milan in Serie A, they started the Europa League group stage in a bad way with a 0-1 result in Istanbul.

Ironically, the defeat was caused by their goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha who started his first season in the city of Rome. In the 66th minute, Strakosha made a blunder that made the goal conceded.

FT | #GalatasarayLazio 1-0Triplice fischio ad Istanbul#UEL#CMonEagles pic.twitter.com/iTPsRctyeT

— SSLazio (@OfficialSSLazio) September 16, 2021

"I think we made progress, it was a different game compared to Sunday (against Milan) in a difficult atmosphere against a dangerous team, but we never really suffered," Sarri told Sky Sport Italia after the game.

"Match under control, unfortunately mistakes are part of sport and we paid the price for that tonight."

Sarri made slight changes to the starting XI in Istanbul. However, still Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Ciro Immobile squandered opportunities.

"We care about the Europa League. At the moment, we cannot change eight players from one game to the next. We changed four and changed our resources during the game. Mattia Zaccagni played well, Toma Basic impressed from the bench.

"It's disappointing to start with a defeat, because it's been an uphill battle, but we have to look beyond the results and evaluate the performance."

“I saw progress from the Milan defeat, because we were much tighter, intercepting the ball more between the lines and allowing less counter-attacks.

"We need to improve our attacking movement, moving without the ball, but I still see a step forward and can't let our judgment be swayed by a fortuitous result."