Lorenzo Pellegrini was bullish after a 2-0 home defeat in the Europa League semi-final, insisting Roma played well and Bayer Leverkusen ‘probably think they already qualified.’
The Giallorossi had the early chances and rattled the frame of the goal with a Romelu Lukaku header before the Rick Karsdorp howler gifted the opening goal to Florian Wirtz.
The new Champions of Germany secured a second after the restart with Robert Andrich hitting a scorcher into the top corner, while Tammy Abraham missed an open goal in stoppages that would’ve at least narrowed the gap.
However, when asked if Roma’s big regret was that Karsdorp error, Pellegrini had a different take.
“The regret is that they scored two goals and we scored zero,” the captain told Sky Sport Italia.
“I think we played really well, unfortunately we wasted many opportunities to hurt them, we kept producing chances to the end and they go home probably thinking they’ve already qualified.
“Instead, we go home preparing Sunday’s match in Serie A and then hope to cause them problems in the second leg.”
Pellegrini wants clinical Roma
Roma will have another very tough game coming up this weekend, a head-to-head with Atalanta for fifth place, but barely any time to prepare for it.
Atalanta were also in the Europa League semi-final this evening, leaving Olympique Marseille with a 1-1 scoreline.
What do the Giallorossi need to do differently compared to this performance against Bayer Leverkusen when the second leg is played next Thursday?
“Compared to tonight, the only thing we need to improve is scoring goals, as I don’t know how many chances we created,” continued Pellegrini.
“They are a strong team and created opportunities on the counter-attack when sitting deep and going with pace, but we still managed to find those spaces.
“We must try to be more clinical next Thursday, because if we play like we did today and have a bit more luck on our side, I believe we can turn this around.”