The Giallorossi Primavera made the best possible start to the Final Eight stage of the 2014-15 season, beating Spezia in the quarter-finals to march on to the semis.
Alberto De Rossi’s men raced into an early lead after Daniele Verde dispatched a penalty won by Di Livio in the 7th minute, before Ndoj sealed a 2-0 victory in the fourth minute of added time.
After the game, the Roma boss declared: “We studied Spezia closely, but we let them back into the game after the goal.”
Was it a tougher match than you were expecting?
“No, it was as we expected. We’ve never faced Spezia in the league but we’ve watched them a number of times and know that their game is based on their physical presence of their striker, who reminds me of an ex-player of ours, Tallo. When the ball reached him it stretched our side and kept theirs compact, so it was a very tough match. Spezia are a great team and I was impressed by Umar, Saqid and their defenders. The group showed how good it’s been this season in the league.”
You face either Lazio or Inter in the next round – who do you prefer?
“We’re focusing on resting now. They’re both very good sides, so there’s no point making predictions or trying to pick one of them.”
What was wrong about your side’s first-half performance?
“We have a philosophy, an example to follow and that’s why we play with technically able players. We took a deserved lead so I don’t know why we didn’t continue to play our game. I made my feelings known about that to the midfield but also to the attackers. We were losing the ball a lot and let them back into the game, yet having taking the lead and with the way we were knocking the ball it could have been a different game, especially in the first half.”
You left a few players on the bench today.
“With matches so close together, we need everybody in the squad and that’s what I told the guys. The starting eleven were the ones I wanted to play from the beginning, but we’ll see who gets the nod next time out.”
Roma will play either Lazio or Inter in the semi-finals on June 12 at 18:00 CET.