Bologna’s Vincenzo Italiano: “I fear Roma, I was hoping to avoid them.” | OneFootball

Roma is preparing to take to the field at the Dall’Ara Stadium for the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

While Gian Piero Gasperini is fine-tuning his strategies to compensate for the absences, Bologna coach Vincenzo Italiano analyzed the Giallorossi’s potential in a press conference.

The coach began by commenting on Bologna’s current form: “We’re coming into this match after putting the defeat against Verona behind us.”

“We’ll face a Roma side that we’ll have to study carefully, trying to highlight some of their weaknesses. As I said, I was hoping for a different draw, because together we could have gone a long way; instead, one of the two teams will have to go. We’re stuttering a bit at home, but we hope to bounce back tomorrow.”

On the potential disadvantage of playing the second leg at the Stadio Olimpico: “I’m not thinking about the second leg. After tomorrow’s match, we’ll focus on the league again; there’ll be time to think about it. You know what kind of atmosphere we’ll find at the Olimpico, and it won’t be easy.”