Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri lashed out at Feyenoord’s supporters on Monday at a press conference in the run-up to Tuesday’s Conference League game with AZ. The eccentric Italian is lyrical about Dutch football, but denounces the fans of the Rotterdam club.
“The Netherlands has always had good teams with good wingers,” Sarri said AD and VI at the press conference in Rome. “The only thing I don’t like about Dutch football is the supporters of Feyenoord.”
Sarri was referring to an away match in De Kuip at the end of last year. Feyenoord then won 1-0, meaning that the Italian team was sentenced to an intermediate round in the Conference League. During that match in Rotterdam, Sarri was pelted several times with cups of beer from the stands.
Apart from the sneer at Feyenoord, Sarri was full of praise for Dutch football and AZ in particular. “They play in a competition of a very high level. The difference with Italy is not that big. I think the Dutch competition is equivalent,” said Sarri.
“If you draw against Ajax, you automatically think that you have drawn a difficult opponent, while that may be less with AZ. But they are only right behind Ajax in the competition, so we should certainly not underestimate them. We will mentally and technically challenged.”
The eighth-final match between Lazio and AZ starts on Tuesday at 6.45 pm. The match is officiated by Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg.
