Luciano Spalletti expressed his satisfaction after watching his side secure a 2-0 victory over Salernitana on Saturday.
“We won the game when we managed to up the tempo. It was a mature performance.
“Matches like this are always difficult because there can be lots of emotional factors at play. We needed to manage the game well and play at a high intensity.
“We kept the ball a lot in the first half but nearly got caught out a few times on the break. Then with a couple of rapid, quality passages of play we were able to score and open the game up.
“In the second half we played to our potential and controlled proceedings after going 2-0 up. As I said, though, in the first half we were a little off the pace and lost our shape a touch. The goal came when we upped the tempo.
“You can never rest easy in football and we saw that again tonight when [Alex] Meret pulled out a superb save to stop Salernitana getting back into a game that seemed all over. Credit to the lad because he hadn't done anything for an hour and a half but still reacted quickly to the shot and made an amazing save, showing what a class keeper he is.”
It was the captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who opened the scoring.
“Giovanni is a key player for us who deserves to be captain. The commitment and power he puts into every training session is incredible. He leads by example with his character, but we have lots of highly professional players who make a big difference to the team spirit.”
You're top of the league with 50 points after half the season – a tremendous tally.
“We know that we have a historic opportunity but we must focus on playing our football, and taking each game with humility and responsibility.”
