Alberto De Rossi bullish after drawing PSV in Youth League

The Giallorossi U19s were pitted against the Dutch outfit at Monday's draw for the last 16 in Nyon, which they qualified for by successfully negotiating a play-off against Red Bull Salzburg last Wednesday.

“There are plenty of pitfalls because there were so many top teams in the hat – clubs that spend an awful lot of money,” the Roma youth coach continued. “However, as I said after Salzburg, I think it's our opponents who will have more of a headache trying to figure out how to deal with Roma.

“Today's draw was proof of just how tough this competition is. Whoever we'd been paired off with would have provided a stern test.”

Roma will travel to Holland for the one-legged Round of 16 contest on 24 February, having made the same journey last season when they beat Ajax on penalties.

“The thing is we don't know PSV very well,” De Rossi explained. “They played in the Viareggio Cup last year and some of those players could be involved when we meet next week.

“All the teams are excellent in this stage but then you expect that – we're in the last 16 of the Youth League. That said, with the quality we have at our disposal we have to focus mainly on ourselves and make sure we're razor-sharp mentally when the game comes around.”

Should Roma make it through to the quarter-finals they will have another away game to contend with, against Paris Saint-Germain or Middlesbrough.

“It's a very peculiar situation to find yourself in in a European competition. We must first focus on PSV and only then consider the next match.

“Nor should we forget that we have a league game against Empoli coming up before then on Friday and we want to continue our solid recent form.”