He feels a bit mocked and with him the whole of Rome. Twice, before the recovery against Udinese and two days ago before the next match in Bergamo against Atalanta, the Giallorossi club wrote heartfelt letters to the League asking for protection in view of the Europa League semi-final matches with Bayer Leverkusen , suggesting different dates. And punctually both times she had the door slammed in her face. Daniele De Rossi again he couldn’t digest yet another no from the football Confindustria which avoided moving the Juventus-Atalanta Italian Cup final without therefore allowing Roma to play in Bergamo on Monday instead of Sunday. On the eve of the first match against the Germans, the Roman coach is still poisoned.
De Rossi attacks the League
De Rossi doesn’t tell her to Sky: “I’m a bit lost. I have people behind me who take care of this team 24 hours a day, sometimes I find our managers on the phone late at night poisoned by this situation. Satisfying everyone is difficult, but sometimes it seems strange that we, as an Italian team and pride in Europe, are not satisfied. I don’t want to make a conspiracy, but it certainly remains a precedent. The only strange thing is that no date was found, while for another match a date was found at the end of the championship and to players on holiday, it had never happened to me. Playing 3 days later will never be the same. For the rest, we have to think about the pitch and try to improve.”
The joke about the tattoo sparks laughter in the press room
In the conference room the tension is eased when he is asked, in English, what tattoo he would get as a coach given the one on his leg which depicts him as a player (the famous triangle with the slide): “What would I get? I never thought about it. I’ve got a lot of them, I’m tired of feeling the pain of tattoos so I stopped, a couple of years ago. First let’s win something important, then maybe I’ll think about it. A calmer tattoo? As a coach you have to be calmer, you can’t make slides. Sometimes I miss that feeling, but I have my players and I believe in them 100%. I am calm because I believe in them and they have shown me that they are capable of doing everything. Now I seem calmer, but I still have the fire inside.” More laughter when Paredes is asked what Daniele should improve on as a coach. The Argentine replies: “he should eat less”. De Rossi laughs: “I knew he said that, but for the rest he has no courage.”
Smalling and Lukaku towards recovery
The Giallorossi coach does not make the recoveries of two illustrious injured players official but makes it clear that we are moving towards a yes: “Lukaku has very little training on his legs, but at the same time he has missed a few days. We’ll take another day to evaluate him, yesterday he didn’t train very intensely, but he seemed to be doing quite well. Let’s see today, maybe we push a little more. Then we’ll decide, I have some small doubts. Smalling? He did training in line with the pace, but he did it all. I hope and think to recover both, then we’ll see how the playing time is managed.”
De Rossi knows the difficulties of the match against Bayer: “There’s everything to fear, the way they play, they play very well. There’s something great about that team. They have a strong coach, perhaps the best in the world, excellent players and they play great football. One thing to respect a lot is that they are unbeaten despite having gone down often. I don’t think the fact of being undefeated is a burden for them, but there are teams that have put them in difficulty. I leave the luck to those who go to play at the casino”
Bayer’s last European defeat came against Roma: “There is a cabal discourse, for those who believe it can be a hope. I think about preparing the match and my players. On the pitch we will find a stronger and improved team. This year they have more awareness, they know they are champions. They have a free mind and want to be champions in Europe too. The numbers say they have changed, but just look at them. It’s a nice memory, I hope it bothers them, but we’re focusing on this match. We know they are stronger.”
Finally, when asked if Roma are a team built to win only in Europe, he responds piqued: “If that were the case it would be very serious and I wouldn’t be able to prepare for the match against Juventus. Since we arrived, we have averaged 2 points in the league. If we had 70 points, we would be calm in the Champions League and could only think about the Europa League. We can’t do it but I also can’t say that my team is used to winning only in Europe, my path is also positive in the championship.”
