(RomaPress Live – Trigoria) Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco and midfielder Radja Nainggolan spoke today ahead of tomorrow’s second leg clash against Liverpool. These are their words:
DI FRANCESCO
Differences between tomorrow and the match with Barcelona?
We face a totally different team tactically, also mentally. They don’t utilise the dribble as much and they like to play direct. We have the desire to make this comeback and do something important.
The strength of this team was the defence in the Champions League?
It will be an important match to approach both in defence and attack. We must score 3 goals.
Strootman?
He will not play.
You’ll have to take risks.
Yes, of course. I also took them in the first leg. Liverpool is dangerous, they can hurt you. But we will have to take risks to believe in the comeback. We will play a semi-final in front of 70,000 people, do you think we will surrender? You should expect a team ready to compete. We will be fighting to overcome.
Klopp’s assistant will be absent.
It does not concern me. The team will remain the same, with their history and a team who has invested a lot: the lack of a staff member will not make the difference. These are not things that compete against us.
NAINGGOLAN
The rest of your life at Roma?
It’s not the time to talk about the future, but let’s talk about the match now. That’s what I believe.
How do you contain them?
If you lose focus just for a second in games like this, you get punished. We need to be fully focused for 95 minutes and give everything – that’s the only way we’ll be able to turn this around.
Was there a difference in the first leg between Liverpool versus the one against Barca?
They had more continuity and we did not. In Barcelona, we had continuity but the result was overstated, that wasn’t the case in England. We scored 2 goals that allow us something to play for, but we can not make the same mistakes.
