ITALY: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - SS Lazio prepare for their Champions League clash against Real Madrid in Rome

SS lazio held their last training sessions in Rome on Tuesday (October 2), the day before their Group C Champions League game against Spanish star team Real Madrid. "Surely, the childhood dream of someone who like me has a career in soccer was to play a Champions League game against Real Madrid" said SS Lazio's coach, Delio Rossi, during a news conference before the training session. "I think this says it all (about my feelings) even if I think that, as they say, we wanted a bicycle and now we have to pedal, no matter how steep the slope," he went on to say. SS Lazio's captain, Luciano Mauri, said he and his team mates must not let the legendary weight of their Spanish opponents get in their way. "If we stop thinking that we are playing against Real Madrid and we stop watching all the champions that are in front of us we'll makea big mistake" Mauri said. "We have to commit all our strengths from the start. We'll have to suffer but we are ready to. It will be a great game, let's hope we come out of it with something in our pockets" he added.

ITN Source | October 3, 2007

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