Ranieri interviewed after Eintracht win

Here's what our coach had to say.

How did you manage to keep a lid on the tremendous pressure you were under, especially considering how good your opponents were?

“When you get big matches like this, the big players step up. That's when World Cup winners lead the team and get everyone else fired up for it. We were very careful at the back. We were afraid of their counter-attacks because we knew they were going to play that way.

“The lads did superbly. They shifted the ball around quickly as I asked them to and then got the ball into the box. It's a great win.”

Before you joined, there was a World Cup winner [Mats Hummels] regularly left out of the team and Angelino – who bossed the flank today – playing at centre-back. It wasn't so easy to put everyone in the right position.

“I work the way I see the game: players are used to playing in certain positions, so it seemed natural to me. I always rated Hummels as an opponent when I used to watch him playing in the Bundesliga or for Germany. He's an immense player. Highly intelligent too. Forget about the footballer everyone is familiar with. I'm talking about the man. 

"Hummels is someone all the others look up to. I told him, 'You should stay here because even if you don't play much, you have to lead the team. The way you train is exemplary.' Today I told the team: 'Your body is like your business. Treat it well because just look at Hummels and how much he is still earning.' That made them laugh.”

Could these last two games Eldor Shomurodov has played change his future?

“I told him he's staying with us. Everyone likes him and the fans love him because he always puts his heart and soul into it. I had him at Cagliari and he's a great guy. Always smiling. I often get angry with him so I told him, 'If you leave, who am I going to get angry with?'”.

[Sky Sport's Beppe Bergomi speaking] I'm happy when I see a player like Matias Soule displaying the ability we saw last season.

"He's a good player and I've been saying that since the start. I said to him: 'You need to make something happen. When you have the ball, I expect to see something important from you: a killer pass, a shot, something good, because you have the ability to do all that.' I understand the difficulties when you go from Frosinone to Roma – and that's no slight on Frosinone, the club that gave him the chance to make the step up. 

“You know that at certain grounds what counts more than anything is your character, your personality, being able to pull on the shirt of a big team. He's slowly getting into that. I have a lot of confidence in him. I'm sure that little by little he'll express his full potential, something he hasn't been able to do so far.”

Do Roma feel they are among the favourites now?

[Ranieri laughs] "When I joined everyone was worried about getting relegated and now do we feel we're favourites in Europe? Let's take one step at a time and not make any promises. We'll always give everything we can. We're on an upwards trajectory at the moment and we need to stay on it. I'm happy because whoever comes on helps lift the team. Last Sunday [Stephan] El Shaarawy came on and I was going to bring him on again today but then I decided to switch to five at the back.

"All of the lads give their all whenever they come off the bench. That's exactly what you want as a coach because you know you can count on each and every one of them.”How much has the team grown and when did that growth start? Has it been discreet or is it something you've been able to see? 

“It's happened discreetly. I still haven't understood if we're there and I want to see it. We must continue like this, working hard and staying humble. When we're humble, we're capable of doing great things. We must stay humble with our feet firmly planted on the ground.”