Stuttgart midfielder Christian Gentner has admitted that Lazio's gameplan was far more "effective" than his side's and that they were deserving of the 2-0 Europa League last 16 first-leg win on Thursday night.
Gentner said that a disjointed display in attack led to a lack of compactness, which in turn saw Lazio pick them off with two goals.
"We weren't effective enough," UEFA.com quotes Gentner as saying. "Lazio played the way you've got to play in Europe; they were clever and I think it probably looked from the outside like they won the game quite comfortably without really putting too much into it, and that is what we were lacking.
"We were not clever enough when we had the chance to score, and then we conceded two. We had our moments in attack, but we didn't manage to get to grips with it and I don't think we managed to get it into our heads that this was the first leg of a European tie and we had to keep things tight.
"Instead, we invited our opponents to score once or twice, and they punished us for it. We had players with enough quality to score, but we just weren't effective enough, despite having the chances."
Gentner has scored five goals in 33 appearances for Stuttgart this season.
Matt Domm
