Gennaro Gattuso is ‘proud’ so many Lazio fans made the trip for tonight’s Sassuolo match, hails Alberto Aquilani, but warns ‘if you have 11 Gattuso players, you won’t win much!’

It kicks off at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia at 17.30 GMT (18.30 CET).

This is the first midweek round of the season, and therefore particularly unusual for a Lazio side who are not in Europe and crashed out of the Coppa Italia in the opening round.

Lazio fans are boycotting home games and have done for over a year now, but they flock to the away fixtures, so are here in numbers this evening, reported to be anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000.

Gattuso jokes about Lazio example

“It makes us proud,” Gattuso told DAZN Italia.

“Naturally, we need to be ready, as Sassuolo are a team who play well, systematically have four attacking players and go on the attack very quickly.

“It’s a Tuesday early evening, we are grateful that they have come all this way to be by our side and hope to make them happy.”

It really will feel like a home game, because Sassuolo ultras announced that in protest against the kick-off time and cost of this midweek round, they will wait outside the stadium for the first 15 minutes of the match, urging others to do the same.

Gattuso was teammates with Alberto Aquilani at Milan in the 2011/12 campaign, his final season before hanging up his boots.

“I have a great rapport with him. Aquilani was always a very intelligent player and is carrying that on in his coaching career. He takes a lot of risks, is very positive, I feel like Sassuolo deserved more points than they currently have, and I am not surprised. I am sure he’ll have a great career.”

Lazio midfielder Reda Belahyane said this week that they all want to copy the example of Italy World Cup winner Gattuso when playing, but the coach joked about his lack of skill.

“If you have 11 Gattuso players in your line-up, you won’t win much! I think we are working hard, we show unity and play as a team, both when attacking and defending. If we keep that up, we can go far, but if we try to be fancy, don’t help each other out or lose humility, we will struggle. That is the secret.”