Daniele De Rossi feels Roma were denied a ‘clear’ penalty in the second half of their entertaining 0-0 draw away against Lecce on Easter Monday, but believes that the bank holiday result was a point gained rather than two points dropped.
Roma went in for time with the scores level at 0-0, despite having faced 27 Lecce shots during the 90. Roma themselves put up a respectable tally of 10.
The coach believes that his team must stop allowing opposition sides such a high number of opportunities during league matches.
“We suffered a lot in the first half, like what happened to us in Florence. We have to improve on this, we have to be tougher when we’re playing direct. If the team isn’t capable of switching it up, you struggle,” De Rossi told DAZN, reported via TMW.
“It’s a point gained, I find it tough to say, but it is a tough situation. It could have been worse. Today, we were missing everything, we also had a bit of a shortage during the build-up.
“We prepared for this game differently to what we saw, though, instead, we put too many balls into the middle, allowing them to recover.”
Asked what he may have done differently given the chance, De Rossi explained: “We have to stay level-headed, even on pitches like these, because we know that we can find an advantage. Falcone did well to close the goal down from Aouar’s chance.”
De Rossi on potential Zalewski penalty
Roma appealed for a penalty shortly after the start of the second half when Nicola Zalewski went down in the area following a corner. Referee Matteo Marcenaro deemed the incident to have been an accidental collision between Zalewski, Alexis Blin and goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone.
Though he didn’t see the incident in real-time, De Rossi was furious after seeing the replays.
“I didn’t see it from the touchline, but from what I saw on the tablet afterwards, we were denied a clear penalty.
“It’s a shame, because if there is a penalty-incident like that, you have to give it, especially in an era like this when fouls are given if somebody steps on someone else’s finger.
“I prefer football when these sorts of incidents are not penalties, but the decisions have to be consistent, otherwise it becomes difficult for us and easier for those who go about it differently.”
Roma will be back in Serie A action at the Stadio Olimpico next weekend, in the Derby della Capitale against archrivals Lazio.
Asked by reporters how he expects Roma’s preparations to go, De Rossi replied: “It has already begun, we have no time to waste. There isn’t much material to prepare for it, because Lazio have only played twice under their new coach, one who is very different to the one before.
“Tudor is very good, he has already managed some important results. It will be very difficult.”
De Rossi also provided a brief update on Paulo Dybala, who briefly appeared off the bench despite set-backs in the build-up to the Lecce game.
“We knew we would only put him on if we really needed him, he’s on his way back. He’s fine, but he didn’t train and we didn’t want to risk it.”
Bye bye champions league 😢