Roma, Di Francesco pinpoints reasons for Barcelona defeat
Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas scored two own goals before Gerard Pique and Luis Suarez scored the other two goals for the Catalan club. Edin Dzeko scored the visitors’ only away goal during their trip to Spain.
“We made too many individual errors. We’re growing in terms of mentality, but the results say we’re not growing enough,” Di Francesco explained.
Roma coach also urged his players to be “combative” against Ernesto Valverde’s side in the return leg, even if they know they have an uphill task on their hands.
“We haven’t taken anything for granted and we’re leaving nothing to chance. We must be combative, even if we know that coming back from 4-1 down against Barcelona is very difficult,” he said.
“We have to believe in something important, with determination and pride, but we made a mistake at Bologna by thinking about Barcelona. There must be no psychological backlash, but we must build on what happened in Barcelona.”