Giallorossi defender Alessandro Florenzi pointed to his side’s mental approach as the chief cause of Roma’s defeat to BATE. The full-back claimed the team’s display in the first period allowed the side from Belarus to make the most of their attacking quality. Florenzi also stressed the need to look forward and come out of the next game with their heads held high.

Alessandro, would a tie have been a fair result?
“I don’t know if we’d have deserved a draw. Us players got our mental approach wrong. We saw a different Roma side in the second half, but we all need to have another look at our performance, myself included.”

What do you put it down to?
“It wasn’t complacency or overconfidence. I believe we’re better than BATE Borisov and had we prepared better, the match would have ended positively for us and badly for them. The fact is we began the game in the wrong frame of mind, otherwise we would never have conceded twice in the space of 10 minutes.”

Why did you they catch you out down the right?
“We didn’t read the game well. They attack very effectively down the left and we knew that. Despite that however, we weren’t able to take appropriate action. It’s our own fault.”

What makes it so hard for this team to achieve consistency?
“If we knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be here describing my disappointment at the defeat. We have to improve in that area because ultimately we lost the match upstairs, in that our minds were still in the dressing room in the first half. Then you start to feel it in your legs too.”

Qualification is still on, you mustn’t get downbeat…
“Yes, but we know that we could have played better tonight, we wanted to win the match. You shouldn’t have to react in the second half because the very need for a response shows you made mistakes in the first place. Either way, we focus on the here and now and look forward.”

Source:  asroma.it