Daniele De Rossi was proud of his team’s effort after winning on aggregate 4-1 against Brighton in the Europa League Round of 16.
In his post-match presser, De Rossi stated that the team could have handled Brighton’s pressure more calmly and presented some areas for improvement.
“I imagined that Brighton would get off to a strong start, and we are always ready for battle. But in battle you have to be clear-headed, and instead we were a bit sloppy with the ball because there were spaces that we did not exploit that would have allowed us to hurt them.”
“If you fail to create a convincing counter-attack then it becomes difficult to breathe as a team. We have to understand that sometimes you defend yourself with the ball and for this reason we could have struggled less than we actually did.”
“We played two good games, but obviously you’re conditioned by the 4-0 result from the first leg, there’s little you can do. It’s not that you give less, you give something different. I leave with the awareness that the team was magnificent in the first leg because it allowed us to make today’s choices.”
“We have to be better at counterattacks because there’s no shame in exploiting them, with the kind of pace we have it’s almost an obligation for us.”
