Di Francesco: Professional job from the lads

The Giallorossi romped to victory despite being reduced to 10-men just before the hour-mark, as Patrik Schick, Edin Dzeko (twice) and Stephan El Shaarawy all got on the scoresheet.

It can't have been easy to win today just a few days after Anfield...

“The lads got their approach spot on and it wasn't easy to go into this game with the right mindset. We played some excellent football. We moved the ball around really well, fashioned plenty of chances and probably deserved to score a few more.

"Then there was the penalty incident – and I'm not sure it was a penalty myself – which could have opened the game up again, but fortunately Alisson pulled off a superb save. That's great for his confidence after the goals he let in at Liverpool.”

So what's the plan for the next four days?

“First of all, we have to recharge our batteries, mentally and physically, so that we're able to go out there and give our absolute all. We must be confident and believe we can turn the tie around. We've shown what we can do once and we'll try and do it again.

"So the first thing is belief. That's my message – “Believe” – and it's what I'll try to drum into my players. I'm sure we'll produce a top performance and we'll be really psyched up for it.”

Patrik Schick seems to be on an upwards curve…

“I only took him off for tactical reasons. I needed to balance the side out after we were reduced to ten men with Juan Jesus's red card, and the only other thing I could have done was take off [Edin] Dzeko and move Schick to centre forward.

"I'm happy Patrik has come on so much – he's improved loads physically too. You need a lot of stamina to play on the wing and he's got that. I'm glad to have him as another option out wide. His display today just shows you that when you're right mentally you can perform well regardless of the system.

“Getting back to the game, I think we responded really well after going a man down. It could have changed the course of the match but we stayed positive and kept running well. The lads really wanted to produce a performance like this and they went out there in the right frame of mind determined to do well.”