It’s usually a pretty good measure of a man when you see how they react to an unexpected defeat or setback. If they take responsibility and vow to learn then you can put them down as a good guy. If they try to deflect the blame and call it a fluke – then anyone who’s ever watched Chewing The Fat will know exactly how to label them.
Any one result can be explained as a one off and blamed on luck, but if you lose twice to the same side in the same month then you have to start looking closer to home for an explanation.
It’s starting to look like Lazio expected they could just turn up and Celtic would roll over, but an injury time winner in both games showed Celtic could go toe to toe with them for the entire game and still pack a punch at the end.
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The Daily Record reported on some comments made by Lazio star Sergej Miinkovic-Savic, and it’s pretty clear he’s not looking to take responsibility for their poor performances in the Europa League this season.
Speaking about the games vs Celtic, the Serbian said: “We treat the league in the same way as we play in Europe. The difference has been we simply have had no luck in the Europa League.”
He went on to add: “We didn’t play badly against Celtic, we just lacked luck in both games. The ball just didn’t seem to want to go into their net and of course they then went and scored with almost the last kick of the ball.”
Milinkovic Savic is one of the highest rated players in Europe right now. A report from The Mail in September suggested he was being watched by Man United and PSG and he was set to sign a new contract with a release clause worth at least €100m.
It’s another example of some clubs on the continent not giving Celtic and Scottish football the respect it deserves, buy that could play right into Neil Lennon’s hands as he plans for the knockout stages.
Beating Lazio home and away should give him confidence that his team can compete against anyone left in the competition.
