UCL: Roma have ’50-50 chance’ of qualifying for the quarter finals, says Spalletti
“I have lot of tactical solutions for this game. I have to play everyone in the right position and I can both use a false nine or a classic centre forward. There are still a few hours ahead of the game and I am going to take all the time I need before making a final decision.”
“The qualification in 2008 came as a huge surprise. And this year it would be even more surprising if we’d made it through the quarter finals. We like those kind of challenges. We can make an ulterior upgrade and I wouldn’t be surprised if we’d battle it out for the qualification until the very last minute of the return game.”
“We are not the team we used to be eight years ago [when Roma qualified against the Merengues]. That team had its own spirit and identity and it had already produced some decent results. This game is the right one to understand whether we are walking down the right path or not. I am optimist because I’ve noticed everyone is extremely concentrated.”
“The lads must believe that we can win this game.”
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the pest players out there. He can always make the difference. He’s a modern player: terrific striker, physically strong, pacey, great finisher. I am not going to set up a ‘cage’ in order to try to stop him, nor I’ll use three players to man-mark him, otherwise I’d have to play 33 players.”
“Whoever will play along the same flank of the Portuguese will have to be very fast, because that’s the first feature of Ronaldo. Florenzi, or someone else could play there. Florenzi can do everything very well. Those kind of ‘universal’ players are usually lacking of something, despite they are able to do pretty much everything on the pitch. Florenzi, on the other hand, is good in everything he does.”
“Daniele De Rossi trained well yesterday. I am going to call him if things will go the right direction today as well.”
“Totti suffered a small injury before the Carpi game. After that he trained pretty well and if he’ll do the same today I am going to call him too. I heard someone talking about experience, but what we need in these kind of games is strength rather than experience, otherwise with the likes of Maicon, Keita and De Sanctis we’d have been well equipped. I am going to play those who will train better.”
Tomorrow, for the first time this season, the Olimpico will be sold out.
“A singer can’t perform well without audience.”
Lorenzo Bettoni @lorebetto
