EUSEBIO DI FRANCESCO says his side need to “copy and paste” their Barcelona miracle against Liverpool if they are to reach the Champion...
EUSEBIO DI FRANCESCO says his side need to “copy and paste” their Barcelona miracle against Liverpool if they are to reach the Champions League final.
The Roma manager admitted cards were stacked against them after conceding five goals, but insisted two late strikes at Anfield gave them something to cling to.
Roma’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals looked similarly buried after a first leg at the Nou Camp in which they were beaten 4-1 by Barcelona.
Yet a superb comeback saw them win 3-0 at home in the Stadio Olimpico – a repeat of which would be enough to see them book their passage for the final in Kiev later this month.
“I would do a copy and paste. In order to compete against a rival such as Liverpool, we need to raise the bar in terms of physical effort, attitude, approach to the game and trying to score an early goal to have the fans behind us even more,” said the Roma boss.
“Man City made a good start to the game in the second leg [against Liverpool] but we need to stay as focused as possible if we are to complete this comeback.
“I would like to make something clear – we are about to play a Champions League semi-final in front of 70,000 people, so do you expect us to sit back? No.
“You have to expect a fighting team, you want to see a team battling on the pitch regardless of the score. What I expect is enthusiasm, passion and desire to go past this hurdle.”
Midfielder Radja Nainggolan insisted he believed the comeback was on.
“We all know it will be difficult, but it was difficult against Barcelona and we did it. We need to believe,” he said.
“It will be more difficult against Barcelona because this is a physically better team. For us, the only thing we need to try is trying to score three goals and not concede.”
Di Francesco looks likely to be missing influential midfielder Kevin Strootman in that task after the Holland international failed to recover from a knock to his leg sustained at Anfield last week. But the manager ruled out the possibility of Roma sitting back despite the obvious risks involved.
“Inevitably, if you want to try and play football and score goals, you need to expose yourself and try to be as cautious as possible in preventing counter-attacks,” he said.
“But we need to improve tremendously compared to the first leg. Some mistakes are inevitable when two aggressive teams are playing each other but we need to be more effective to make the most of mistakes and try and make as few as possible.”
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