Baroni sees ‘courage and joy’ from revamped Lazio | OneFootball

Marco Baroni was pleased with the ‘courage and joy’ of his Lazio team as they swept OGC Nice aside 4-1 in the Europa League. ‘We have ample margin for improvement.’

The coach had never managed a UEFA match in his entire career before this season, but now has a 100 per cent record in the Europa League.

They beat Dynamo Kyiv 3-1 in the opening fixture on neutral turf in Hamburg, then flattened OGC Nice 4-1 at the Stadio Olimpico this evening.

“The team played very well and it wasn’t easy, but they had the right mentality and I received an important response from the players who hadn’t received as many opportunities so far this season,” Baroni told Sky Sport Italia.

“It doesn’t matter who or where we are playing, the team must always have courage and joy in its football. This is a positive moment of form and we have the utmost concentration.

“This is a team that has ample margin for improvement, I am certain of it.”

Lazio scoring regularly under Baroni

Pedro broke the deadlock and assisted one of the two Taty Castellanos goals before a Mattia Zaccagni penalty, as Jeremie Boga got the only goal back approaching half-time.

“We have a lot of good attacking players in the squad, they have to work hard to maintain the tempo and matches like these require sacrifice,” continued the coach.

“If we all do that, then this team can play beautiful football with talented forwards.”

With Boga putting Nice back into the game, Baroni made two changes at half-time, introducing Mattia Zaccagni and Nicolò Rovella for Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Loum Tchaouna.

“The two lads who came off have quality and prospects for the future, but we were up against a strong opponent and when you don’t press, you can run into difficulties.

“We needed to keep the ball more and raise the press, which we did very well, despite it being a very difficult pitch to play on in the rain.”

This puts Lazio in an excellent position to secure a top eight finish in the big Europa League table and therefore go straight into the Round of 16, as they have six points from two games and a goal difference of +6.

“From the first days of pre-season, the players have been really up for this working method and that speeds up the process. I have to be the first to show courage and make big decisions, but it’s what I see in training that allows me to do that.”

Zaccagni said afterwards that Baroni leaves it to the players to decide who takes the penalties, so is that true?

“It’s Zaccagni really, but there are many players capable of it.”