Giampaolo issues rallying call: “We must compete against ourselves.”

Lazio seem to have a black mark over Marco Giampaolo’s Sampdoria, having won four out of four since he got the job.

“The scoreline was excessive, as we gifted them two goals in the last five minutes,” the Italian commented after the latest defeat against the Biancocelesti this afternoon. “There’s a huge difference between us and them, they’re run differently and have different experience. For sure, we could have done without giving them goals, because the performance level overall was OK.”

In terms of the race for the Europa League, not much has changed: we’re still three points off the final qualification spot.

“Samp are having a fantastic season,” the coach continued. “We’re still in the race and we’re alive and kicking. We’ve got four games remaining and we need to win two or three. We have to compete against ourselves. The result is frustrating today, but we’ll give it a shot until the end of the season.”

The Blucerchiati are back at the Marassi on Sunday, which will bring comfort after the latest travails on the road.

“The amount of points we have is what we deserve,” Giampaolo concluded, “considering our qualities and defects. We could have achieved more or less – we’ll draw our conclusions in a month’s time. We’ve won a lot at home and not enough away, we have to work on this ratio. However, now is not the time, we just need to concentre on doing our best until the end.”