Sarri: "We Deserved To Be Eliminated, We Lacked The Necessary Physical Or Mental Strength, Which Made Things Difficult At Times."

Maurizio Sarri admits Lazio deserved to be knocked out of the Europa Conference League after a 4-2 aggregate defeat to AZ Alkmaar, proving his side is not strong enough to play more than one game at a time.

In the Europa League round of 16 second leg on Thursday night (16/03) local time, Lazio repeated their first leg with a 2-1 loss to AZ Alkmaar. Felipe Anderson gave the Biancoceleste hope on aggregate but the hosts fought back with two goals from Jesper Karlsson and Vangelis Pavlidis.

"We deserved to be eliminated," Sarri said via Sky Sport Italia.

"We were in the game until they equalized and then we stopped believing in it and were not focused on getting back into the game."

"I thought after the equalizer my team lost all hope, but that wasn't the right attitude with 55 minutes remaining."

"Afterward, we lacked the necessary physical or mental strength, which made things difficult at times."

After the break, Sarri made 3 consecutive changes to remove Alessio Romagnoli, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and Mattia Zaccagni, is this a sign that they have given up hope?

"I have planned the change, we're attempting to remain competitive while also giving rest to those who participate in a lot."

After finishing third in the Europa League group stage, The Aquile were eliminated from the European Conference League in the 16th round, this left them with the ability to fully concentrate on their pursuit of the top four in the final standings of the Serie A. The coach was then questioned if there was anything he wanted to alter or any remorse over Biancoceleste's performance in the Europa League or European Conference League.

"It's not because the players aren't in good condition, it's because they've played every three, four, or five days since last January, this is normal for players to lose their energy," he said.

"We can't believe we're very competitive; I know European competition will be a challenge for us. We couldn't make a completely different decision because it was based on sensations and medical advice."