De Rossi: ‘Heroic Roma, but Bayer Leverkusen are stronger’ | OneFootball

Daniele De Rossi thanks Roma for their ‘heroic performance’ in the Europa League semi-final against ‘stronger team’ Bayer Leverkusen, but regrets going out to unlucky situations.

The Giallorossi had to perform a miracle after their 2-0 first leg home defeat, and were about to achieve it when leading 2-0 with a pair of Leandro Paredes penalties.

However, just as they were about to force extra time and become the first team all season to beat Bayer Leverkusen, the Germans took advantage of a rare Mile Svilar error on a corner that bounced in off Gianluca Mancini, then scored another on the counter in stoppages for 2-2.

“It was a heroic performance, but Leverkusen are a really strong team. I thought our performances in both legs were good, we didn’t have enough shots on goal and sometimes that can make the difference, but the lads were incredible,” De Rossi told Sky Sport Italia.

“Just two days ago we were giving our all until the last second against Juventus, again tonight we had to push with incredible physical and mental exertion. When you manage to get it back from 2-0 down and go close to the miracle, knowing nobody has ever beaten them this season, it hurts to see us concede a goal like that. It hurts.

“We have to keep going, maintain this spirit and play the final games of the season.”

That will start on Sunday with a trip to Atalanta, in what is a head-to-head for fifth place in Serie A, and Roma are starting to look exhausted.

“We lost Spinazzola to injury, many have been fatigued for a while. Bayer Leverkusen and their directors did a lot of talking about how confident they were and it almost turned on its head, so you never can tell in football.

“Clearly Atalanta and Roma will be in very different moods, they are in the Europa League Final, but we didn’t need that to tell us how good they were. We knew it would be tough tonight, that we’d be battling hard, but I cannot ask for anything more from these players.”

De Rossi forced to readjust Roma

De Rossi started with a 3-5-2 formation and Nicola Zalewski struggled to deal with Jeremie Frimpong after replacing injured Leonardo Spinazzola, but Roma stabilised when Stephan El Shaarawy switched flanks with Zalewski.

“That interchange between Spina and Angelino was kind of the main focus of our approach, with two big strikers who could deal with crosses, as we saw that Leverkusen struggle on crosses.

“Considering Spinazzola suffered a strain out of nowhere and Zalewski came on with 20 seconds to warm up against a fast, aggressive winger like Frimpong, and was booked too, inevitably he was going to have issues.

“I moved him over because I didn’t want to expose Zalewski to more of that situation.”

De Rossi was asked if he learned anything from this Europa League adventure and facing off against Xabi Alonso?

“I learn something in every match, it is a new experience for me, I was just starting out in Serie B a year ago. I think only four or five Roma coaches have played in a European semi-final, so I feel proud of that. My work is not limited by 90 minutes, it is analysing why we didn’t reach the Final and in my view that’s because we met a team that was stronger.

“I always said we would give our all, try everything we could do and if at the end the opponents were stronger, we’d shake their hands. Well, that’s what happened, we shake their hands.”

Roma went into this game with Paulo Dybala only fit enough for a spot on the bench, but he was not thrown on even in the final minutes. Was he able to play after that muscular problem against Juventus?

“Dybala was very generous just sitting on the bench, yesterday after 10 minutes of training he felt a twinge again,” explained De Rossi.

“We brought him along thinking maybe he could come on for 10-15 minutes, but the game went differently and I was waiting in case we needed him for extra time.”

Atalanta will face Bayer Leverkusen in the Europa League Final in Dublin on May 22.