Dries Mertens confessed he’ll be haunted by the chance that came off the upright after Napoli went out of the Champions League to Real Madrid.
The little Belgian had opened the scoring at the Stadio San Paolo and hit the woodwork, but two Sergio Ramos headers from corners and late Alvaro Morata tap-in transformed the tie.
Dries Mertens confessed he’ll be haunted by the chance that came off the upright after Napoli went out of the Champions League to Real Madrid.
The little Belgian had opened the scoring at the Stadio San Paolo and hit the woodwork, but two Sergio Ramos headers from corners and late Alvaro Morata tap-in transformed the tie.
“We gave everything in the first half and they only scored thanks to a corner that we gifted them. That’s what makes us sad, as we allowed the world champions so little,” Mertens told Mediaset Premium.
“In my view we should learn from this game, because it’s wonderful to play at home in this atmosphere. I think we were a little unlucky, but Real Madrid have quality and we knew that.
“We knew Sergio Ramos always pops up at the difficult moments. It still hurts. When I go to bed tonight, I’ll see that ball coming off the post again. It was a special moment, we could’ve gone 2-0 up.
“Even then, I think they would’ve had real problems scoring against us without that corner. They needed the set plays to break us down.”
Mertens has now become a Real Nine more than a False Nine, having played as a winger for most of his career.
“Thanks to the Coach we are playing great football, it’s wonderful to be a part of that and to play like this. If we play the style that he wants, we can do great things together.”
Towards the end of the game, Lucas Vazquez shoved Mertens in the back, but the referee waved away penalty appeals.
“We knew that we were playing against Real Madrid, so the referee… anyway, the game is over, we have to focus on doing well in the next matches coming up.”
Mertens was also asked about the famous ‘doggy’ celebration taking a rest break on the corner flag after his opening goal against Roma.
“I want to apologise if the people in Rome thought badly of me, but I have a dog at home and I love dogs. I thought about the Finidi George celebration for Nigeria and it just came into my head. I wasn’t trying to upset anyone.”