Inzaghi: 'More Champions than Europa'

By Football Italia staff

Simone Inzaghi has a limited Lazio squad against Cluj and warns this group “is more at the level of the Champions League than Europa League.”

It kicks off on Thursday at 17.55 UK time (16.55 GMT), as part of a group with Celtic and Rennes.

“This is a tough group, more at the level of the Champions League than Europa League,” warned the Coach in his Press conference.

“Both Celtic and Cluj were in the Champions League preliminary rounds, while Rennes won the French Super Cup and are doing very well. It wasn’t a great draw for us, that’s for sure.

“Cluj are a physical, intense side with a fine Coach in Dan Petrescu. There will be many key duels around the pitch. If I had to single out a player for special treatment, it’d be Billel Omrani.”

Ciro Immobile, Luis Alberto and Stefan Radu haven’t even made the trip to Romania, while Adam Marusic is suspended.

“There are 19 players in the squad. We have no particular physical problems, but it was better to avoid a journey just to sit on the bench.

“I still have a few doubts to decide on tomorrow, but Thomas Strakosha will be in goal and Bastos in defence. I don’t like playing one goalkeeper in Serie A and the other in Cup competitions, although I do have faith in Silvio Proto and he’ll play when needed.”

The changes come after a disappointing 2-1 defeat to SPAL, as they had been 1-0 up and crumbled in the second half.

“We analysed the SPAL game, understood what went wrong and everyone took their share of the responsibility, starting from me and my staff.

“The fact remains, in the first three games of the season, we only got 25 minutes wrong and threw away three points because of it. Before the SPAL performance, I had seen the Lazio from last season, the team that won the Coppa Italia.

“We were the only side last season to have beaten Juventus. It’s not like we have to go a long way back to find good Lazio performances, it’s just about focusing to ensure we don’t make the same mistakes again.

“It’s like Senad Lulic said, at times we should be happy with being less spectacular and just winning games.”

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