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The Giallorossi were left stunned at the Stadio Olimpico after first-half strikes from Marco Benassi and Giovanni Simeone, as the failed to win for the third game in the row.
But, speaking after the match, Kolarov – who came on as a second half substitute – acknowledged that there were areas that the team needs to work on but insisted there was no reason to be ‘over-dramatic’ about recent performances.
“I don’t know [if we were too soft], they scored twice from two shots – I don’t remember any others,” Kolarov said.
“I’ll talk about the result, the coach can talk about the defence. I don’t think we need to be over-dramatic. It’s not the result we wanted, it’s the second defeat in a row, we’ve lost at home but even if we had won it would not have decided anything in the Champions League race.
“We need to look forward, first at Barcelona on Tuesday and then the derby, and show we have the quality to play in the Champions League again.”
One point from the last two games: the path to the Champions League risks becoming complicated…
“They are points we’ve dropped, but in two days we have another game and we have to be mentally strong and put the last few results to one side and focus on Tuesday.
Was there too much rotation?
“No, we all have to be ready: no-one can play every game, it’s not humanly possible.”
Di Francesco spoke about determination and aggression: are they two things missing in this group?
“I know we created a lot of chances and did not score, so clearly we are missing something going forward. We have to be more determined and focused on scoring goals. It’s good that we created a lot, beyond the result we did not have a bad game… but it’s the result that counts in the end. To win you need to score goals and today we didn’t.”
Is it a matter of mentality?
“The head always leads, after results like today we always need to bounce back and try to make amends. The more experienced players must try to move on immediately to win the next game.”
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