The Lazio manager Vladimir Petkovic has said that he is extremely happy to have qualified from the Europa league group stages into the knockout stages.

Lazio managed to enter into the knockout stages of the competition following their 0-0 draw with the Premier league club Tottenham. Even though this match was marred by a number of off the field incidents involving the Lazio supporters abusing the Tottenham supporters, it was a good result for Lazio on the pitch. They came into the match looking for just a draw in order to progress to the knockout stages.

Tottenham, who finished in the fourth position in the Premier league last season, where the initial favourites to progress to the next round, but Lazio have now qualified ahead of the English club. Vladimir Petkovic has said that he is extremely surprised by the qualification, but is happy at the same time. After going through a period of matches without a victory, Lazio are unbeaten in the last five matches in all competitions. They recently managed a 3-0 win over Udinese to go fifth position in the Italian Serie A table. They remain only two points below the third position, which will be enough to get into the Champions League next season.

“It was important to get back to a strong performance and we showed today we can do well even against a team like Tottenham. We only lacked a goal after creating four or five chances, but despite this I must compliment my lads for what they achieved. How far can we go? I don’t know… We certainly want to win every game and impress, starting from the match with Maribor where we will aim to secure first place in the group. We can fight it out with anyone," said Petkovic after the match.