Rudi Garcia’s pre-Lazio press conference in full

Asked by one journalist how he highly he rates Lazio this season, Garcia refused to be drawn into any pre-match mind games.

“I just want to speak about my own team,” he claimed. “We study our opponents to give ourselves the best chance of getting the three points. It’s a special, unique match. I want us to be at 100% - no, at 200% - across the board, not just in terms of our motivation. If we do our job and play like the real Roma, we’ll have every chance of getting what we want – three points and a derby win.”

Roma will be playing their seventh match in what has been an important run of games. How is the team doing?

“We’re fine. Lazio are on their seventh match in three weeks too. We’ve had four days to recover and we know that it’s easier after a win. The players are motivated and have to be ready for 15:00 tomorrow.”

Roma are scoring more goals in the opening 30 minutes that last season. What’s changed?

“Hopefully it can be that way in every game. We’ve shown we can start strong and nick a goal straight away. That type of attitude makes our life much easier than when we concede and have to fight back, though we’ve done that too this year. It’s better to start strong, but at the end of the day matches are 90 minutes long and it’s not just the first ten or 20 minutes that count.”

Last year Stefano Pioli didn’t appreciate some comments you made. Do you need to say something today?

“I’ve always said that in football and in general life, you have different approaches in different situations. There’s a completely different context to the derby this time around. We want to win the match, because we’re playing at home and because we want to go top of the table. We want to win that match, we want to win the derby and we want to retake top spot. The only thing that counts tomorrow is the three points.”

Pioli rotated in the Europa League, but Roma were forced to keep pushing until the last minute against Bayer Leverkusen. Is that a disadvantage for you?

“Some players will have had seven matches, others six – it doesn’t make a whole lot of difference. We’ve had a day more to recover and four days are plenty when you’ve won. Neither side will be at 100% physically but there is no advantage or disadvantage for either of us.”

It will be the lowest crowd ever for a derby. Do you want to appeal to the fans to get them back to the stadium?

“I already have. I can only say that it’ll be sad tomorrow if there’s not a full stadium and a derby atmosphere. I’ve already appealed to the fans and can’t do any more than that. I’m just focused on the match now.”

How are Alessandro Florenzi, Maicon, Daniele De Rossi and Seydou Keita?

“Florenzi and Maicon worked with the group for part of today’s session, spending the rest of it working individually. We’ll check their fitness tomorrow morning but they’ve recovered well so are in the squad. De Rossi is in the shape he was against Bayer, so it’ll depend on how he feels. He’s in the squad but I don’t think he can manage a full game. Keita is back – he’s not played for a long time but he’s in the squad too.”

How is Iago Falque getting on?

“The problem was his knee injury. He’s better now and has recovered, but it’s one of those where he’s not going to be at 100% straight away. Iago is back, he’s an important player and he’s shown right from the start of the season that he’s another option for us.”