Roma manager De Rossi has urged his side to aim for an early goal against Bayer Leverkusen during Thursday’s semi-final Europa League game at the Olympic Stadium.
The Italian club suffered a 2-0 defeat in the first leg of the game, with goals from Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich.
Rossi revealed his side has learnt some lessons from the defeat and urged his players to fire on all cylinders in a quest to secure an early lead in the match.
Rossi said: “First of all, we must constantly strive to score. When we weren’t trying to score they did a really good job of pulling us out of shape with their pressing game, but at the start of the match we were excellent at pressing them ourselves.
“They’re a team who like to keep the ball moving. We created some chances ourselves when they lost a bit of inertia. That’s when we performed at our best – the way you should play a semi-final. And that bodes well for this game. The end of the first leg is the perfect lead-in to the second leg.
“They have a healthy lead and they’ve never lost but we must believe and keep trying, as we did until the last second of the first leg, creating some fairly clear-cut chances. That will give us the best chance in this game. We know it will be difficult to get the result we need but that’s what we’ve come here to do.”
Comeback possible against Leverkusen
De Rossi has refused to rule out a possibility of stunning Leverkusen and revealed how he always prepare for every game he plays while also praising his side for the feat recorded thus far in the European league.
He continued: “I don’t know. Sometimes I prepare something beforehand: other times, I just say what comes to me. Before the Barcelona game, I said to my team-mates – as captain – that I trusted them, and I’ll say the same to these players.
“They’ve got us here with their individual and collective performances and with their personal qualities. I trust them and I’m sure they’ll produce the performance we need to try and complete the comeback. Against Barcelona, we were playing at home and we had virtually no chance. It was almost easier to make the impossible become possible as we were carefree. That doesn’t mean we can say we’ll go through but we’re ready to make a real game of it and open up the tie again.”
