Simone Inzaghi praised every Lazio player after eliminating Roma to reach the Coppa Italia Final. “Tomorrow will be the happiest birthday of my life.”
The Aquile already had a 2-0 first leg lead, so their 3-2 defeat this evening was irrelevant, even if they had taken the lead twice.
The Coach was not even supposed to be on the bench this season, but was recalled after Marcelo Bielsa refused to attend pre-season training.
Simone Inzaghi praised every Lazio player after eliminating Roma to reach the Coppa Italia Final. “Tomorrow will be the happiest birthday of my life.”
The Aquile already had a 2-0 first leg lead, so their 3-2 defeat this evening was irrelevant, even if they had taken the lead twice.
The Coach was not even supposed to be on the bench this season, but was recalled after Marcelo Bielsa refused to attend pre-season training.
“We know we did something extraordinary, because we know what a derby is and a Coppa Italia semi-final against Roma. It seemed as if we were on home turf, not Roma, so the fans were fantastic.
“I wanted to thank the lads, from first to last, as tomorrow will be probably the happiest birthday of my life,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
Inzaghi turns 41 tomorrow and the goalscorers were Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Ciro Immobile, just like in the first leg.
It is the third time Lazio have reached the Coppa Italia Final in the last five seasons.
“Ciro had this little pain and the medics were concerned, but like a real gladiator he gritted his teeth and decided the tie really with the second goal.
“Stefan de Vrij asked me for a substitution after half-an-hour and if I’d replaced him earlier, we probably wouldn’t have conceded the equaliser.
“I thought we could hang on till half-time and evaluate his condition, but unfortunately you could tell he had a problem on that goal.
“We were always dangerous on the counter-attack, at half-time I was disappointed to concede that goal, then we lost Lucas Biglia as well, but everyone who played over the two legs gave their contribution.
“Dusan Bastos and Jordan Lukaku are examples of those who haven’t played as much this season, but were decisive. Considering we are fourth in Serie A and in the Coppa Italia Final, evidently we’ve done some good work.
“Let’s not forget Lazio eliminated Genoa, Inter and Roma – including a victory at San Siro – so the lads deserve so much praise. Now we’ve got the Final at the Olimpico, we’ll see who it is against.”
Napoli and Juventus go head-to-head tomorrow night in the other semi-final, though the Bianconeri have a 3-1 first leg advantage.
This weekend, Lazio face third-placed Napoli in Serie A and can realistically target a Champions League spot.
“We’ll have to evaluate De Vrij and Biglia’s condition, but today we were missing a very important player like Marco Parolo. We’ve missed important players a lot this season, but we barely noticed, because the others filled in so well and worked as a team.
“The four Coppa Italia semi-finalists are the four top teams in Serie A, so I think that says a lot. Few would’ve expected us in pre-season to be in this position. I always had faith and the players proved me right.”