Lazio have gone beyond expectations, says Inzaghi

Lazio reached the Europa League quarter-finals on Thursday, leaving Simone Inzaghi delighted with his overachieving squad.

Simone Inzaghi says Lazio have exceeded expectations after they booked their place in the Europa League quarter-finals with a 2-0 win at Dynamo Kiev.

A 4-2 aggregate victory took the Serie A side through to the last eight, Lucas Leiva and Stefan de Vrij scoring to save Ciro Immobile's blushes as the Italy international missed a series of presentable chances.

And with his side the Supercoppa Italiana winners and fourth in the league, in addition to their exploits in continental competition, Inzaghi is delighted with how the season is panning out.

"I have to compliment the players as they put in a great performance," he told Sky Sport Italia. "We deserve our place in the quarter-finals, but it wasn't easy.

"The team was wonderful and we fully deserved our win. We prepared for this game well. We were always solid, sharp and never lost our shape.

"I can't ask for any more from this squad. We won the Supercoppa Italiana, we would, at this moment, qualify for the Champions League and failed to reach the Coppa Italia final only after a sudden-death penalty shoot-out. I tip my hat to this team.

"We are now in the Europa League quarter-finals. We'll see who we get in the draw tomorrow. Our objective was to go forward in this competition and we have gone beyond expectations.

"We believe in what we're doing. With this mentality, we can go far."