Maurizio Sarri came armed, as he always does, with the perfect Tuscan saying for the occasion. “Like I hear people say in Florence, c’è il pane e la sassata,” he told Dazn as Lazio prepared to kick off against Napoli. There’s bread, and then there’s being hit by a rock. A colourful way of expressing the feeling that life is only ever perfect or a complete disaster, with no middle ground in between.
His team had taken a few boulders to the face lately. Lazio’s best player, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, left to join Al-Hilal in the summer. Then they lost their opening two games of the new season to Lecce and newly promoted Genoa. It was not the start Lazio had hoped for after finishing as runners-up last season. When players went to acknowledge supporters in the Stadio Olimpico’s Curva Nord at the end of the latter defeat, they were met with demands to “show some balls”.
