Daniele De Rossi anticipates Bayer Leverkusen semifinal: “We’re excited about this challenge.”

Roma boss Daniele De Rossi spoke with anticipation about the team’s preparations leading up to the first leg of the Europa League semifinals with Bayer Leverkusen.

In an interview with Roma TV, De Rossi said, “We are excited, we are happy to experience another unforgettable evening in front of our fans, aware that it will be a very difficult challenge, but not out of our reach.”

“After the Napoli draw I said we must always be lively, we must always be strong, but there is also a moment in which players physiologically can be less brilliant, also because we come from a period in which we are chasing a very difficult goal and it takes away a lot of energy, especially when you see that you are chasing others but the fourth place remains just as distant.”

“The teams around us and above us are doing very well, so the league table is very open also thanks to them. Europa League is a separate matter, it’s a cup, direct elimination, home and away and whoever is stronger in these two matches will win, not in the whole year.”

“Lukaku and Smalling trained and seemed to be fine. If they continue to feel well they will be called up.”

“Bayer Leverkusen? What is to be feared is their mental condition, because they are a team that never loses and begins to feel unbeatable, but begins to feel unbeatable not in a presumptuous way but by having faith, believing in it until the end.”

“A team that scores twenty goals in added time means that it is a team that has attributes, that has heart, that has tactical knowledge and that has players of great quality and temperament.”

“The merits of Xabi Alonso? They are a team that was on the right side of the table and in two years playing good football led them to triumph in Germany, something they had never managed before, and got back to the semi-finals of the Europa League which is another very difficult thing.”