‘Extra motivation’ – Zaccagni and Marusic admit league defeat to Milan fuelled Lazio

Lazio duo Mattia Zaccagni and Adam Marusic have admitted that they were fired up to get revenge on AC Milan in the Coppa Italia last night.

On Saturday at San Siro, Rafael Leao got the only goal in the second half as Milan won 1-0. On Thursday night at the Stadio Olimpico, the script was flipped as Mattia Zaccagni got the winner 10 minutes from time.

There was talk of ‘revenge’ for Lazio as they felt that they were hard done by in the league defeat a few days ago, due to late VAR controversy involving a potential handball on Strahinja Pavlovic that was not given. They got their own back, and Milan’s Coppa Italia drought will tick past 23 years.

Lazio get their own back

The match-winner Zaccagni spoke to Mediaset after the full-time whistle to offer his assessments of the victory, with Bologna to come in the next round.

“We are truly happy, our objective was to go through, and we also were really eager to make up for Saturday,” he said (via Football Italia).

“It was a strong performance, we earned this place in the quarter-finals. This is a difficult season, but we are united, the coach will indicate the right path, and we’re with him.”

Photo by Paolo Bruno/Getty Images

Full-back Marusic also gave his thoughts post-match, admitting there was a bit of added fire to go out and avenge what happened a few days prior.

“That was extra motivation, what happened on Saturday, we all really wanted to get the win and go through. Our fans were right behind us and we hope to play many more games in the Coppa Italia with them,” he said.