Roma Coach Eusebio Di Francesco dismisses a controversial front page – “I don’t have to respond to Tuttosport…”
The Turin sports daily’s front page today showed Medhi Benatia, Miralem Pjanic and Wojciech Szczesny, with the headline “From losing Romans to winning Juventini”.
“Everyone is free to express whatever they want,” Di Francesco shrugged in his Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with the Bianconeri.
Roma Coach Eusebio Di Francesco dismisses a controversial front page – “I don’t have to respond to Tuttosport…”
The Turin sports daily’s front page today showed Medhi Benatia, Miralem Pjanic and Wojciech Szczesny, with the headline “From losing Romans to winning Juventini”.
“Everyone is free to express whatever they want,” Di Francesco shrugged in his Press conference ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with the Bianconeri.
“We have to respond on the pitch, chatter gets blown away with the wind. We can look at data or other things, but I don’t have to respond to Tuttosport.”
Juventus Coach Max Allegri was far less dismissive of the Lupi than Tuttosport, saying they could be the Old Lady’s main rivals for the Scudetto.
“I think he said one of them,” Di Francesco clarified.
“I thank him because he gave us a compliment, and it comes from someone who knows how to win.
“He talked about numbers and are defensive stats are good, we hope to continue that tomorrow. We can exchange compliments, Max is a great Coach.
“We’ve been preparing for a very important game. I won’t say it’s crucial, but it’ll be very important from a psychological point of view.
“We must look for a result at all costs at what is a very difficult place to go. The identity of the team won’t change though.
“Getting a result in Turin would be an important signal for the group.
“Which players would I take from Juventus? They have good players, [Gonzalo] Higuain is lethal.
“[Paulo] Dybala is a champion, so it’d be easy to say him but I’ll say [Mario] Mandzukic. He’s a player who destroys the balance of a team that is defending, because of his physical characteristics.”
If the Croatian is fit tomorrow, he could be up against Alessandro Florenzi. Could that be a physical mismatch?
“Mandzukic has his physicality, but Ale also had that against [Inter’s Danilo] D’Ambrosio and other opponents.
“He’s very good at shutting down crosses from the right with his strength and quality, but we also have great attacking potential with Florenzi.
“Every duel has its pros and cons.”