Tudor: ‘Juventus-Lazio just first half of semi-final’ | OneFootball

Lazio coach Igor Tudor warns tonight’s match is ‘only the first half’ in the Coppa Italia semi-final with Juventus, but he already sees his team ‘on the right track.’

It kicks off at the Allianz Juventus Stadium in Turin at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

These teams crossed paths on Saturday in Serie A at the Stadio Olimpico when Adam Marusic nodded in the winner deep into stoppages, a great way to mark the debut of the new coach.

“It will be a different game to the one we saw in Serie A, although there was not much time to prepare something too different tactically to that match,” Tudor told Mediaset.

“This is only the first half, because we consider the semi-final to be a tie of two halves.”

Maurizio Sarri tended his resignation after four consecutive defeats in all competition and Tudor wasted no time changing their tactics to a 3-4-2-1 formation, this evening pushing Luis Alberto into a more advanced role.

“My team will never be perfect, because we always try to improve and seek to get closer to perfection. However, we are on the right track, we want to play football, not just focus on the result, and I like that.

“When I arrived, I found the team in good shape, eager to get to work and turn things around.”

This will always be a special fixture for Tudor, who spent many years at Juventus as a player, then won the Scudetto as assistant manager to Andrea Pirlo too.

“It is always wonderful to be back in Turin, but there is a match to play and I am focused on my lads.”

Tudor really is being thrown in at the deep end, because on Saturday he will play city rivals Roma in the Derby della Capitale in Serie A.

“I am not thinking about the derby. I made changes today because we are playing twice in three days and many players had also just returned from international duty.”