‘We Could Have Won’ – De Rossi Speaks On Roma Vs Juventus Tie

AS Roma coach, Daniele de Rossi, said that both his team and Juventus were determined to secure a victory in their Sunday clash, which ended in a 1-1 draw. Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for Roma before Gleison Bremer leveled the score with his goal.

De Rossi said, “I think we played a really good game and if I reflect on the fact that 48 hours ago we were struggling after a very intense match where we fought to the last second and today I saw the performance improve as the game went on, I can only be proud. We’re not that happy with draws, but seeing the attitude of the lads, the way they never stop fighting to achieve a result, I am so pleased with that.”

“With a pinch of luck, we could’ve won, but so could they. That’s the definition of a draw. Juve has exceptional players and they deserve credit too.” He stated. “Both teams wanted to win and both felt we could win. It isn’t a good idea for us to get stretched out against a Juve side that is so good at counter-attacking. We needed to pin them back and we did for the last 20 minutes or so.”

He continued, “We do have a small defect, which is that when we go behind, we get a bit scared and lose our way. We did it against Napoli, after the goal with Leverkusen. We need to take a breath and remember that the pitch hasn’t suddenly got bigger, the things that worked well up until a few minutes ago can still work, so we have to look to our certainties.”

The Giallorossi lost 2-0 at home, so how can De Rossi inspire his men to still believe in a turnaround against a team that has never lost this season?

De Rossi said, “You believe. If you think about the first 28 minutes, we had a big chance, were aggressive, saw a lot of the ball, and overall had 68 percent possession. We also mustn’t be hasty, it’s not like we need to overturn five goals, it’s two. I even asked Allegri for advice and he said you can score at the 60th and still do it.”

“We’ve seen what Bayer Leverkusen are like when they break the first press and have space to run into, so we need to be energetic and intense, but also intelligent.” He said.