De Rossi: “We'll fight to the last second”

Here's what the boss had to say...

How's Romelu Lukaku doing? And with Chris Smalling available again, could we see Diego Llorente on the right?

“Lukaku has trained very little but he wasn't out for a long time as it was only a small injury. We'll take another day to assess him but yesterday, although it was a fairly soft training session, he looked pretty good. We'll have another look at him today. We might push him a bit more to see how he responds and then we'll decide. I haven't made my mind up yet.

“Chris trained yesterday too. The session was what it was but he did all of it. I hope and I think we'll have both available but we'll have to see how long for.”

What about Llorente on the right?

“It's possible. We consider ideas based on how the players look in training and recent experiments with centre-backs on the right. We try to consider lots of things.”

You've said that Bayer's mental strength is the main thing you fear about them. How are you training Roma in that regard, given that your squad isn't at peak physical strength at the moment?

“I don't think it's the main thing to fear. We should fear everything about them, starting with the way they play. They play superb football and have had so many good results. They have some excellent players. I rate their coach very highly for what he's achieved since taking the reins. They've spent more time working with their coach.

“There's a lot for us to worry about and one thing we must be very respectful of is the fact they're still unbeaten despite often having fallen behind in games. They've also often gone on to win matches after conceding an equaliser. Besides being a great team, they have this incredible belief and tenacity to keep chasing the game even when it might seem lost.

“That's one of the things I fear about them but there are many others that are more technical than mental and that's why I have so much respect for them.

“As for ourselves, sometimes conceding a late goal can be down to fatigue while other times it's about mental strength – both when you concede and when you score.

“We're talking a lot about Bayer Leverkusen but we have plenty of players of our own who are on the ball till the very end because they want us to achieve our targets. Otherwise we wouldn't have come away from Udine with three points at the end of a strange game. We wouldn't have scored a second goal in Naples after going behind against a team like that, at a stadium like that, and we wouldn't have stopped a certain goal in the 95th minute [Gianluca Mancini on Victor Osimhen] when Mile [Svilar] wasn't able to hold onto the ball.

“We're a team with tremendous belief and spirit so in that sense we'll be even. When you're playing for something as important as a place in the Europa League final, both teams will keep fighting till the last second.”

Do you think their status as 'unbeaten but not unbeatable' might be a burden for them?

“I don't think it's a burden but something they'll want to cling onto. They can say they've always been better than their opponents and even those teams that caused problems for them – and some of them have been excellent teams – have never beaten them.

“Luck is for people who go to casinos. There's something about this team. They've achieved something they'd never managed before and there are lots of reasons for it: they play good football, they have great players, they have one of the best coaches in the world and also because there's something different about them mentally.

“So I don't think it's a burden but something to be proud of. I'd like to be unbeaten and I'd use it to tell my players that no one has beaten us and we have to stay unbeaten because we're better than the rest. I think that's what they'll do.”

If you were to get a new tattoo to describe yourself as coach, what would you have done?

“I've never thought about it. I have too many. I got fed up with the pain from tattoos so I stopped. But if we win something big, then I might think about getting a strange tattoo.”

And would it be a 'calmer' tattoo? Because you seem calmer as a coach.

“You have to be calm as a coach. You can't go sliding into tackles and hitting people. Sometimes I miss that feeling but I have my players, whom I believe in 100%, and I know they carry my mindset and my spirit with them onto the pitch.

“I'm very calm because I believe in them and because they have shown me they can do anything even if I'm not on the pitch. I'm calmer off the pitch. I seem calmer, but I still have that fire burning inside me.”

On 11 May 2023, Bayer lost to Roma – that was the last time they lost a European game. Does that motivate you? Or is it a scary prospect to think that no one has beaten them in Europe since?

“It might seem like there's something mystical about it if you believe in that sort of thing and you believe it might continue. It's something for them to hold onto. I'm trying to prepare for this game, to prepare for them and what we'll face on the pitch.

“We'll be up against a completely different team to the Bayer Leverkusen Roma beat last season. They were already a very good team – that much was clear – but I think they were less direct, less dangerous in the final third, and above all they had less confidence. Now they're German champions and they have nothing to worry about on the domestic front. They'll be looking to win in Europe too. You only need to look at the numbers to see that they're a totally different team to last year.

“It's a nice memory for us. I hope it bugs them but we're focused on what we'll be up against tomorrow – a much better side, unfortunately.”

What do you admire most about Bayer Leverkusen from a tactical perspective?

“There are several things. They have great players who are put in the right positions to hurt opponents. They're a strong team, a solid team, with some amazing individual talents: [Florian] Wirtz, [Jeremie] Frimpong, [Alex] Grimaldo, and many others.

“Patrik [Schick] is another one. He was always a great player but he's grown up now. Then there's [Victor] Boniface. Top, top players. And they're solid in defence.

“There's no single quality that sticks out. If you look at their alternatives, you see what a physical side they are. If Frimpong doesn't play, they have [Nathan] Tella. They have players of the highest quality but also very fit players.

“They know how to move the ball around but they can also go direct. You never know what they're going to do. They've built an amazing team thanks to their coach's ideas but also by signing some great players.”

Is a three-man defence an option?

“It is an option. It's an idea that appeals to me and it would test my players in the duels, the one-on-ones. Me or you. That's something I like doing sometimes.

“Sometimes you journalists place too much emphasis on whether we play three- or four-man, almost as if this team couldn't play with a three-man system. I think that's totally untrue. You only say that because we tried it for spells in a few games and it didn't go particularly well, but there have been other games in which we struggled with four.

“I think a three-man defence – if you do it well, with players who can play defensively even when you're attacking, with defenders who can be your team's first attackers – is a very interesting solution. That doesn't mean we'll play with three but it's an idea I'm considering. It could be a useful counter-measure in tomorrow's game.”

Where do you think the match might be won tactically? And is 4-3-3 a possible tactical tool?

“Definitely. Your colleague just asked me if the defence could be a tactical tool and I said it could. You're asking me if 4-3-3 could be a way to win it and I say of course it can.

“You'll never be able to prove otherwise of course, but you can win a game one way or the other. The initial formation doesn't matter that much. In the past people used to play 4-3-3 with static full-backs. They'd stand there the whole game and just watch the corner flag. The centre-back stayed in the centre.

“We younger coaches study the best coaches and they teach us that as soon as the referee blows for kick-off, everyone starts to move. Lots of teams build play with two centre-backs, maybe with players who stay high or stay narrow. When I used to play, the full-back normally played on the flank. Nowadays they tend to come inside a lot more.

“It's not about 4-3-3. We often use these numbers to talk about how we defend, which depends on what we want to do and how we want to build, which can be quite rigid sometimes. But even then, it all depends on your opponents because if you play on the flank and you find their full-back in front of the defence, why would you stay on the flank? It's a chess match and it's fun. Of course an alternative is to exploit the numerical superiority on the overlap, whatever formation you play.”

Roma move the ball around more now than than they did a year ago. Are you willing to alter your style of play to figure out Leverkusen?

“We have a ‘code’. We know their style of play. We must remember that Bayer can be dangerous when they attack but we also have to attack ourselves. We have to win.

“The tie is played over two games. Now we must focus on the first one and then we'll worry about the second one. But without looking too much at last year because everything has changed since then.

“It's the same two clubs but two different teams and two different moments. They have more self-belief because they're the German champions. They're more aware of what a great team they are and the fact they could win a European trophy.

“We must be aware that it will probably be harder than a year ago but we can still do it.”