Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi previewed tomorrow night’s first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 with Roma.
During his pre-match press conference, De Zerbi discussed the opportunity of facing his friend, Daniele De Rossi.
“De Rossi was born to be a coach,” De Zerbi told reporters. “Two years ago I had indicated him as one of the possible great coaches of the future; he has all the components such as personality, charisma with the football players.”
“I’m happy because he is changing a strong team, with two finals under their belt, and he’s still found a way to get to them and made an impact on the game and is getting results and it wasn’t a given, from my point of view he is a great coach.”
“I respect De Rossi because he is my friend, we are very similar as people, so much so that our daughters have become friends because we have the same values.”
“We have no European experience but we came here to play for it, we know what stadium we play in but we know what we are worth and what we have done in a year and a half and we are proud. We don’t just play for the quarterfinals, we play because we are writing history and we are doing something unthinkable.”
