Sarri has not changed his mind “Juventus are unstoppable”

Serie A is back after the blue stop. Against the bianconeri, Lazio have one more reason 469 days after the exemption, the Tuscan coach meets the players with whom he won the Scudetto

the case

TORINO

Immersed in a cloud of anger. So Juventus will meet Maurizio Sarri on Saturday at the Olimpico in Rome, 469 days after that badly digested black and white exemption, but this time the cigarette smoke and his Tuscan temper have little to do with it. The Lazio coach would have liked to play the coveted game of rematch with all his players available and instead will have to give up the totem Ciro Immobile, top scorer in Serie A with 10 goals in 11 games, in addition to the attacker Pedro (bruised ankle) and outside Marusic (Covid). Not exactly the best way to restart after the championship break, let alone in the most anticipated big match where Sarri’s wounded pride goes hand in hand with the possibility of burying Allegri’s uncertain Juve in the common fight for a place in the Champions League. Lazio are 5th with a 3-point advantage, but the direct clash will be experienced above all on the benches. Sarrismo against cortomuso, to the delight of Treccani.

After competing for the famous 2018 Scudetto, this will be the first duel between two coaches so different that they are also the last technicians to have won the tricolor for Juve. It is the only thing they have in common in black and white, given how Allegri was recalled by Agnelli to launch the restoration after the failed revolution of Sarri (and Pirlo). An environmental incompatibility – the Juve world did not appreciate the style of a naive technician between tracksuits, cigarettes and swear words – which resulted in a relationship that was born badly and ended worse. From the sentence pronounced during the summer tour in the locker room (“How did I lose the Scudetto against you?”) To the final prophecy (“This team is unstoppable”), passing through the meeting in mid-October 2019 in which his staff said “Either we go straight on our way and in a month they send us away or we make some compromises to win the Scudetto and then they send us home at the end of the season”, the Juve-Sarri relationship was stormy. Although he won the championship in the carriage, and after 12 days he had 32 points against the current 18, but his championship was not celebrated. “Everyone went to dinner on their own – last summer’s public outburst – and that title was taken for granted by everyone. The right year to go to Juve would have been this, after a 4th place. Which was also celebrated … ». And then fire to the powders. –