“We lacked quality. Roma deservedly passed”

Mister Stephen Pegs he spoke to Sky Sport at the end of the Roma-Milan match in the Europa League. His statements:

A Milan not up to the quarter-final level: “Yes, absolutely yes. Roma showed more quality and more determination and deservedly went through.”

What was the problem? Tactical or mental? “There’s everything in there. We lacked quality. We didn’t create clear scoring opportunities but it’s equally true that we had situations inside the area where we could have scored a few more goals, taking advantage of our numerical superiority. We didn’t succeed because we didn’t have that quality and determination that was needed to try to overturn such a negative result after their 2-0.”

An hour in numerical superiority but a Milan not charged: “We had to be much more lucid, intense and faster in moving the ball around, not forcing plays and playing the whole second half close to their area and we didn’t always succeed, we weren’t always so precise in the last pass, not always we were so precise not to force. Then when opportunities came our way we didn’t have the quality to realize them.”

Why did you go straight down? “In the first goal we didn’t accept Mancini’s insertion before he got to his shot, then he makes a great play and we had to be more careful. Then there was a great play by Pellegrini. They made two shots and took either the Dybala cross or the Pellegrini post where they then scored the goal. They had more quality and were more decisive in the decisive plays, it must be admitted: we were not as high a level as we thought and hoped we could be.”

Theo’s two games: “In my opinion, after defeats like this it can’t just be the question of a single player who hasn’t performed as well as he could. I believe we can do much better. We have to give credit to Roma who played very well, but we could have stood up to them and could have come out of this double comparison with different results. We weren’t able to raise our level and this penalizes you because Roma are well, have quality, and are well placed on the pitch and we weren’t that effective in both phases. It’s also a moment where we don’t concede a lot, but when we concede, we suffer. And when you suffer a lot while conceding little, it means that you have to be even more careful and determined. If in two games we had shots on target 40 times and then only Gabbia scored from a corner, it means that the quality has disappeared.”