Lazio played with 4-3-3 line up. Inter played with 3-5-2 line up. When Lazio were meeting Inter in midfield’s front, they were like 4-5-1.
Normally, Lazio’s centre forward could match with Inter’s centre stopper directly. But consciously, he didn’t match. He stayed closer to Inter’s defensive midfielder and covered him with shadow marking.
Wingers waited with the midfielders until Inter’s right or left stopper took the ball. Then they closed to stoppers slowly. They didn’t close to Inter stoppers immediately so Inter’s stoppers had time and space before Lazio’s wingers met them. Stoppers were not completely comfortable but they had enough time and space.
Lazio’s midfielders accorded their positionings to spaces where they cover more than Inter’s midfielders’ positionings.
Defense line didn’t take position closer to the midfield line all the time. So the distance between Lazio’s defense and midfield lines was so much.
When Inter were trying to make game from behind, Lazio pressed so balancedly. They didn’t press so aggressively but also didn’t let Inter make game from behind comfortably.
The problem for Inter was, Inter tried to make game balancedly too. This time, to make game, they needed one Inter’s player to do something special when they were trying to make game from behind. I mean for example, if one player could dribble with the ball and pass his one opponent, Inter would be in a better situation to make game. But it didn’t happen so Inter couldn’t make game from behind.
When they were trying to make game, Lazio’s 3 centre midfielders could cover Inter’s 3 midfielders comfortably. And also because wingers and centre forward didn’t cover Inter stoppers so closely, they could help to midfielders to cover midfield better.
Inter’s one of the wing backs closed to stoppers if the ball gets closer to wing, which also wing back took position in too. But this time, Lazio’s full back followed wing back and didn’t let him make game comfortably.
In my opinion, the thing that Inter had to do was breaking Lazio’s balanced pressing with long balls. With long balls, they could raise the tempo too. When Inter were trying to make game from behind, if wing backs would take position in forward and right and left centre midfielders would support them from half-spaces, this time they would have numerical advantage with 4 vs 6 in forward. If right and left centre midfielders would take position between midfield and forward lines’ half-spaces, they could take the second balls too.
Also right and left centre midfielders could pull Lazio full backs to themselves and wing backs could escape defense line’s behind free too.
You can ask that what if opponent’s right and left centre midfielders would follow Inter’s centre midfielders too. First of all, as I said before, Lazio’s midfielders took position accordingly to spaces which they cover. And because they wanted to meet Inter in midfield’s front, they didn’t close to defense so much. And also because Lazio’s defense line didn’t take position closer to midfield line all the time, Inter’s right and left centre midfielders would have more space between Lazio’s defense and midfield lines.
But of course Lazio’s centre midfielders could understand now what Inter were trying to do and they could start to take position closer to Lazio’s defense line.
This time, first of all, probably Inter’s centre midfielders would be more closer to Lazio’s defense line than Lazio’s centre midfielders. Because still Lazio would be trying to meet Inter in midfield line’s front. If Lazio’s centre midfielders would take position closer to their own defense line more than Inter’s centre midfielders, Inter’s centre midfielders could make connection with stoppers and defensive midfielder comfortably and now because they were closer to forward and Lazio’s centre midfielders were closer to their own defense line, Inter would be in set attack. So actually Inter would pass Lazio’s pressing.
In this situation, like previously, Inter’s stoppers had to play long but this time, they had to try to escape Inter’s players to defense line’s behind. With these passes, even if Inter players couldn’t take the ball in the first time and even if they would lose the ball against Lazio’s defenders, when Lazio’s defenders took the ball, Inter’s players could press to Lazio players so effectively and with gegenpressing, Inter players could take the ball back from Lazio’s players and go to score goal.
When Inter’s stoppers played long, at the same time, if Inter’s right and left centre midfielders would start to run forward, they could be in a more advantageous situation even than before. They were already closer to forward than Lazio’s centre midfielders and now also because they started to run forward before Lazio’s centre midfielders, they would be closer to forward more than Lazio’s centre midfielders if we compare with the previous situation.
So when the long ball reached to forward and Lazio’s defenders took them, because it’s Sarri’s Lazio, they would try to make game with short passes. But Inter would already matching with defenders directly. Wing back could match with full backs and centre forwards could match with stoppers 1 by 1. And because now Inter’s right and left centre midfielders were closer to forward more than Lazio’s centre midfielders, Inter’s centre midfielders could support pressing quickly and Lazio’s centre midfielders couldn’t support defenders about making game. So now Lazio would be in a chaotic situation.