Di Francesco: Players deserve all the credit

Read what coach Eusebio Di Francesco had to say in the wake of Roma's 1-0 win over Qarabag on Tuesday night.

The result confirmed the Giallorossi's place in the last-16 of the Champions League as Group C winners.

QUESTION: Is this your greatest achievement to date?

DI FRANCESCO: “It was a great win and a difficult one too – it's never easy to win in the Champions League. I'm absolutely delighted to finish top of the group. It was tough. No one had us down as favourites at the start; in fact, we were pretty much written off. We just got on with the job and believed in ourselves.

"The lads played with real conviction right from our opening game at home against Atletico. We didn't play particularly well that day but we showed we could dig in. That was the start of a great group stage for us.”

Why do you think you struggled for the first 50 minutes?

“The first half was different to the second. I told the lads that when our opponents gave us space out wide we needed to be making the runs but our off-the-ball movement wasn't great so we found it hard to create the openings we wanted.

"We did better in the second half then towards the end we perhaps eased off a touch again. Getting through the groups stage is not something Roma are used to doing every year. It's all good for our growth as a team though and we must learn from it. I always tell my teams to go for another goal. I don't like keeping the ball for the sake of it – I want to see it played forward.”

Who deserves the most credit, you or the team?

“It's the players who deserve credit first and foremost. I just try to put my ideas across. As I said, the main thing is getting inside the players' heads. I think I've managed to do that but I'm not going to settle for what we've got. We still have a lot of work to do.”

Did you believe right from the beginning?

“When you do this job you have to believe in your ideas. I'm naturally a positive-minded person.”