Roma defender Gianluca Mancini was present at today’s press conference to preview tomorrow night’s return leg with Salzburg in the Europa League.
“I expect it to be a war like the first leg was,” said the Italian centreback. “We will have to give everything and score as soon as possible to take everyone with us and win.”
“It’s an important match for us, if Roma win we’ll go through and we’ll focus on the next rounds. It’s not that we start celebrating and papering the city because we would go to the round of 16, but we want to advance, that’s for sure.”
“My development? I looked in the mirror, I saw my stats from a year ago which showed that I had missed several games due to too many yellow cards. I’ve worked on myself to reduce these things and be more consistent both in attitude and performances.”
“Reviewing last year’s games, some yellows were stupid and didn’t make sense, I tried to improve myself in this sense. I spoke to the coach, wanting to improve myself. Having ups and downs is normal, look at last season.”
“Individual performance also depends on the team and daily work. We’ve been working together for a year and a half, there will certainly be some ups and downs that every footballer has always had. One has to be good at being focused and working hard.”
“The dressing room is fantastic. We love each other. We’re all brothers here and our objective is always giving everything we can for the club.”
“Smalling and Ibanez? We have been playing together for a long time, Kumbulla is also a wonderful guy. Llorente has brought experience, he is part of the defender family. Playing together helps to understand each other even with a simple glance, it leads you to have a better performance. Roma’s defensive side is fine but it’s also thanks to the whole team that sacrifices itself.”
“I personally hope and think that Smalling will remain with us,” he added.
