Maurizio Sarri Reveals the Roma Derby He Remembers the Most, Slams Early Kickoff: “Defeat to Football” | OneFootball

The heat can cause the rhythm to drop. It’s tough for us and for them. This isn’t a defeat for the teams, but for football. In my opinion, it’s a defeat for the institutions, because if these decisions are made to maintain public order, it means there are difficulties in maintaining it. However, we shouldn’t care about this, because if there’s a game worth dying for in the heat, it’s the Derby. It’s a special game, extremely heartfelt, one of the most passionate derbies in the world. The emotions and adrenaline are high.

Taty is doing fine and is likely to be available. We’ll assess Rovella today [Saturday]. We might bring Patric to the bench, more symbolically than anything else. Dele had a slight pain, and also had a cold in the morning. A precautionary test was done, and it came back negative. If he trains today, he should be able to start.

Gasperini’s teams are always physical and aggressive; they create a million difficulties for you. Perhaps they are indeed physically superior. Nevertheless, the derby is a match between two clubs who hate each other from a sporting point of view, so I want my team to fight for its people.

I’ve played in six of them, I lost one, and I only remember that one. I still recall the emotional distress in the days that followed. This makes you understand what the Derby means. I was almost ashamed to return to the training center. This is the derby—a game where if you don’t do everything that’s needed, you risk disappointing an entire people. If you don’t, the feeling stays with you in a heavy way.

So far, we haven’t ‘turned on’ completely. We played a terrible game against Como, we were good against Verona, and against Sassuolo, tactically we were fine. But we were missing something in terms of pressure and offensive quality. On Sunday, Sassuolo were waiting for us with a low block. We played in front of them, but not enough between  their lines. This makes it difficult to be dangerous. It was a game that gave the sensation that we were just going through the motions instead of wanting to win at all costs.

Pedro will play, but I don’t know if partially or from the beginning. We still haven’t decided. We have to understand who we have left to change the game and evaluate many things. We have great faith in him; in big games, he has always had important performances. We try to preserve him, letting him play without putting him at risk for 90 minutes at the start of the season.

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