9.10pm
What Roma was missing
The Giallorossi coach still on the Roma channel: “What was missing? A bit of awareness and clarity in getting the ball rolling. There were plenty of spaces for the backs of their midfield to hurt. We had prepared it like this, we lacked a bit of brilliance from this point of view. We also lacked the strength to beat such a strong team. Sometimes, towards the end of the championship, we can lack a bit of energy. If you play against such a strong team, and I think Napoli are the strongest together with Inter, it’s really difficult.” Then, once again, De Rossi is asked if Lukaku and Smalling will be recovered for Bayer Leverkusen: “We hope to find them again, they have two slightly different situations, but not too much. We’ll see in these days. We hope to have everyone because it is a moment in which energy and strength are needed. Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow we will understand something more.”
9.07pm
De Rossi at the Roma channel
De Rossi speaks to Roma’s official YouTube channel: “It’s a very useful draw, but it’s a shame because we took the lead in the 60th minute but honestly the pitch said that maybe we didn’t deserve the victory. When you get there, so close, with a few minutes to go, being ahead, you have to try to manage it better. We could have gotten the goal earlier, but we got it quite unluckily. But above all we revived a match that seemed lost, with great heart and great pride, we defended it in the last attack, in a way that has always distinguished this team, with Mancini’s intervention to save Svilar. It’s the perfect picture of what this team has, without prejudice to the fact that we need to do much better“.
8.55pm
The joy of Abraham
Tammy Abraham smiles at Dazn’s microphones for the goal scored after a year and the knee injury: “I’ve been dreaming of this moment since the beginning of the season. I’ve been working on my mind to be ready after the injury and thank God now the ball went in today. It’s a dream to celebrate the goal with my teammates, even though it was just a draw. It’s never easy to play against the team that won the last championship. We didn’t have many chances but we fought as a team. I told myself that I had to be in the right place and I succeeded Leverkusen? We love these challenges, especially me. We would like to be the team that breaks their unbeaten record. We have to be ready, we want to get to the final.
8.40pm
Napoli-Roma, the numbers of the match
The shots in favor of Napoli in the Maradona match are 27 to 10, the shots on target are 9 to 4. Roma wins by ball possession: 51.5% to 48.5%. The corners were 9 to 2 for the Azzurri.
NAPLES-ROME 2-2, ALL THE STATISTICS OF THE MATCH
8.30pm
How to beat Bayer Leverkusen
Next Thursday Roma awaits the Europa League match against the very strong Bayer Leverkusen. How do the Germans fight? “I also thought Milan was very strong – De Rossi replies to Dazn – I was also afraid of Brighton and Feyenoord, they are similar teams, they all play football. Preparing matches against teams that want to play is more difficult. We will have to be careful in defense and try not to let him have the ball. They have very good setters, if you take the ball away from them, they get nervous. We have to do both phases perfectly. They never lose, they equalize at the end. They have something special and the games recovered at the last second show it. They are undefeated, but there are no unbeatable teams.”
8.27pm
Roma are involved in the matches
Andrea Barzagli, from the studio, points out to De Rossi that in any case Roma are always in the matches, until the end, regardless of their form: “We are doing things well in terms of performance and results, I am also satisfied with the attitude – replies DDR – there are teams that always lose when they play badly, while others manage to bring home at least a draw. We didn’t cover the ball well and gave Osimhen too much depth in the second half, but he is too much faster than the others. Even in not exceptional matches, my players want to pull something out this season, knowing however that it will be very difficult. We have this tour de force, it’s tough and we know it, but we have to find the strength to get the points to get to the Champions League or to win the Europa League“.
8.23pm
De Rossi at Dazn
De Rossi arrives at Dazn’s microphones: “This point is worth one in the standings and isn’t worth too much from a moral point of view, because we didn’t put in a convincing performance. We didn’t do badly against Bologna, events turned against us. Today we gained an extra point but the performance convinced me less. They are such a strong team. We had to put in a super performance and we weren’t able to do it against a team like that. They were in a difficult moment and showed the pride of the champions. They are difficult to deal with“. Then he talks about the attackers, Azmoun and Abraham: “The incidents make the difference, they were the protagonists of these incidents. They helped us as much as they could. We can always do better, but I’m happy with the attackers I have. When you play against such strong teams, my first thought is to take away their the ball and the pace. Every time they had the ball, it was clear that they could be dangerous. We didn’t keep it well, because we could have done something more with it and the performance of the attackers could have been more positive.”
8.20pm
Renato Sanches’ performance
De Rossi is pressured on Renato Sanches, author of Napoli’s penalty foul: “He gives us a hand, he has technical qualities. He entered well in a difficult moment, he was unlucky with the penalty, he will be able to give us a hand. My choices penalize him, he has never played 90 minutes, but he is a very important player, especially in the last month he has been training with intensity. We will need him too.”
8.15pm
De Rossi praises N’Dicka and Abraham
De Rossi then talks about N’Dicka’s performance: “He marked Osimhen all match. We need everyone, I’m happy for Tammy Abraham’s goal who returns after a tough period. We have two players back from injury. We need everyone, we hope to also recover Lukaku and Smalling for Thursday, we really need everyone. Will they be there against Bayer? We think they can recover for Thursday, we’ll understand from the next training sessions if the problems are behind them“. On managing the ball against Napoli: “In the end we kept the ball like them, it’s not that, but what we do with the ball and where we go. Mancini played a game in line with the others, who didn’t have an exceptional game. It wasn’t our best version, but it didn’t affect our performance. It’s not easy to always play and he always plays even when he’s not in perfect condition“.
8.12pm
De Rossi is not satisfied
Daniele De Rossi begins by speaking to Sky: “We drew and we’re not throwing it away, but it’s not what we wanted and we didn’t play the game we wanted. They are strong, we catch them in a complicated moment. We should have been cleaner in possession, when they have the ball they need to be dangerous. We lost the ball too often, they played a good game, we have to do better also because on Thursday we play against another great team. We were tired? I don’t know, this is a squad built with not too many setters in midfield. When Paredes isn’t there you can feel it, but we have to do better because he can’t always be there. We have played many games and there are still many to go. If we think about tiredness, we will struggle from here to the end“.
8.05pm
The Champions race
Roma remains in fifth place, which leads to the Champions League this year, with 59 points, 4 points behind Bologna and 6 points behind third-placed Juve with 4 matches to play. Atalanta, who beat Empoli today, are only 2 points behind De Rossi’s boys with one more game to play, then there is Lazio at 55.
THE SERIES A RANKING
7.55pm
De Rossi’s words soon
De Rossi will soon speak on connected TV channels and in a press conference after Napoli-Roma.
