Lazio head coach Vladimir Petkovic says his team won the Coppa Italia final because they were more of a unit than Roma.
Bosnian midfielder Senad Lulic scored the decisive goal for Lazio as they won the first ever Coppa Italia final between the two capital clubs and while Roma head coach Aurelio Andreazzoli dismissed the match as lacking quality, Petkovic said his team would look to build on their cup triumph.
Lazio defeated Roma 1-0 to lift the Coppa Italia for the third time in 10 seasons with Petkovic saying his players got the job done through teamwork.
"I think we were more a team than Roma tonight. They had individual players who could be dangerous, but we were great in managing our play and creating the right chances when we had to," Petkovic said.
"I'm sorry for Roma because they deserve compliments too, the same for any team that reaches this point of a competition, they did well this season too.
"I'm proud of my guys and very happy for them, my compliments to them.
"Now we can look at the future more confidently."
Having missed out on qualification for European club competition through the Serie A, Lazio clinched a berth in next season's Europa League with their victory at Rome's Stadio Olimpico.
Meanwhile, Roma will miss out on the group stages of both the Europa League and the Champions League for a third straight season but speaking after the match, Andreazzoli said neither side had played at a level befitting continental football.
"To be honest, in general it wasn't a good game, I personally didn't like it," Andreazzoli said.
"We didn't do much of what we had prepared but I saw that we didn't let Lazio do much either.
"There were a lot of technical mistakes, Lazio were slightly better than us in the first half, while we opened the second half with a good 20 minutes of play.
"We managed get the upper hand in the game.
"Unfortunately we didn't score in those 20 minutes and then when we thought we were in control we were punished by their goal."
