Roma coach Daniele De Rossi says he only had gratitude towards his players following their Europa League exit to Bayer Leverkusen. A brace of penalties from Leandro Paredes wasn’t enough for the Giallorossi, as the Bundesliga champions scored two late goals , including an equaliser from Josip Stanisic in the 97th minute. Speaking with RAI (via Romapress) post-match, De Rossi only had positive things to say about his teams performance:
“After the game I didn’t make any speeches, I hugged each one of them, I thanked them for their performance. We arrived at this match after an incredible tour de force.”
“Mentally and physically it wasn’t easy to keep up against a team like that. According to a team like Leverkusen, they suffer from not keeping the ball and perhaps we should have tried to keep more possession.”
“But I can only thank my boys for the emotions they’ve given me, and for what they show me in training and for the hope they give me for the future.”
“Congratulations to Bayer who were stronger, they are a fantastic team; we shake their hands because they play well. They have physical characteristics that make it difficult to play high up on them and in general to play against them.”
“We played 25 minutes of the first half very well, we knew that today it would be a tough challenge to get back in it. When we got it back on our feet we were also unlucky at a certain point, in their skill they are also in a state of grace. One episode turned in their favor as it also happened in the first leg.”
