De Zerbi before return leg versus Roma: “We’ll take our chances then see what happens.”

Ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League clash against Roma, Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi urged his team to make the most of their goalscoring opportunities.

Despite the daunting challenge posed by their 4-0 defeat in Rome last week, the Italian technician remains steadfast in his belief, encouraging his players to approach the game without fear.

“We’ll have to play our best and do everything we possibly can [against Roma], then we’ll have to wait and see the final result,” began De Zerbi in his pre-match press conference.

“We haven’t scored many goals in our last few games, but we’ve created a lot of opportunities. My job is to focus on us doing better such as cutting down the mistakes in the final third.”

He continued, “We’ll need to work hard to create scoring chances—attack space and play between the lines. Though, it’s ultimately up to players themselves to score goals.”

“Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I think the players will remember this [journey through the Europa League]. Whether we win or lose tomorrow, they’ve done an excellent job. Obviously we have to play better than the first leg but we’ll do all we can and see what happens.”

“Clearly there’s significant motivation not just for tomorrow, but all the competitions we’re in. It’s true we believe we can still progress [over Roma], but we have to do it on the pitch. Words aren’t important, the only thing that matters are the facts on the pitch.”

Asked about his team’s four-goal disadvantage, De Zerbi was asked to recall a similar situation earlier in his managerial career.

“I actually encountered a similar circumstance during my time at Foggia. We’d lost the first leg 5-1, or it might’ve been 5-2, but then we won 6-1 in the return leg,” he stated.

“Obviously that situation was different than this—here we’re up against a very strong team. Roma are a great side, I watched their match against Fiorentina and they played good.”

“They’ve also done really well in their last string of fixtures and fully deserve to be where they are.”