Reja keen to forget Palermo humbling

Lazio boss Edy Reja has urged his team to move on after their 5-1 loss at Palermo in Serie A on Sunday.

Decimated by injuries and suspensions, Lazio were handed the humiliating defeat to fall even further behind in the title race.

Reja, who was forced to play Cristian Ledesma in a make-shift defence, said he wanted his side to forget about the demoralising defeat.

“This is not the real Lazio. We had a total blackout,” Reja said after the loss.

“I had to put Ledesma in defence because there were no other options, so of course we had difficulties.”

“It gets worse, as Andre Dias and Francelino Matuzalem will be suspended for the next game. The only good news is that Stefano Mauri returned (off the bench).”

“We’ve got to stick together and get through this. We must turn the page and above all not let ourselves get too downhearted.”

The hosts were 3-0 up at half-time after goals from Edgar Barreto, Massimo Donati and Matias Silvestre, before Igor Budan and Fabrizio Miccoli netted.

Czech forward Libor Kozak pulled a goal back for Lazio, who had Brazilian Andre Dias sent off after he picked up two bookings.

Ledesma refused to blame a weakened side for the heavy loss, and joined Reja in telling his team-mates to put the game behind them.

“The problem wasn’t the injured players who weren’t playing tonight. We cannot go onto the pitch thinking that,” the midfielder said.

“We lacked determination with our early chances and we didn’t play the rest of the game with enough concentration. You didn’t see the usual Lazio tonight.”

“It wasn’t because of the absent players, it was just a bad night. The game went wrong and that’s all. We need to forget about it straight away.”

Lazio have slipped to fourth in the standings and are now eight points adrift of league leaders AC Milan.