Lazio president Claudio Lotito has played down the significance of his side's 2-1 defeat to Juventus.
Lotito still confident of title push
Lazio president Claudio Lotito has played down the significance of his side's 2-1 defeat to Juventus.
Sunday's match looked set to end all square until Milos Krasic netted a winner with just seconds remaining.
The result leaves Lazio fourth in Serie A and six points adrift of leaders AC Milan, with just one match remaining in 2010 before the winter break.
Lazio's spirits will have been dampened by the dramatic loss but Lotito remains convinced that they can challenge for the title.
"The league is still long, and there are the conditions to show that the run is linked to how teams spend in January," he told reporters.
"These things happen, but in the end nothing much has changed. We were second and we remain second (level on points with Juve and Napoli but behind on goal difference).
"Lazio have not set any objectives, and so we will continue to take each game as it comes."
Reja criticises Cavanda
Manager Edy Reja admitted that Belgian teenager Luis Cavanda was at fault for the decisive goal.
He said: "Cavanda is a young player, and should not have given that much space to Krasic in the end. His inexperience meant we paid the ultimate price.
"It is disappointing because the match was already over, but we couldn't hold on.
"In the end, we didn't have enough of the ball. There is a lot of disappointment as we lost with five seconds to go.
"Now, it becomes difficult to keep our spirits up, but we did demonstrate that we could take it up to Juventus."
