De Rossi: We wanted to deliver a great European performance

The Giallorossi won thanks to goals from Stephan El Shaarawy (two) and Diego Perotti, with De Rossi admitting afterwards that the players had spoken in advance about the importance of addressing the club’s unremarkable history in Europe’s top club competition.

“We said in the dressing room before the match that we have not had many great nights in the Champions League, but a few where we have been battered,” De Rossi said.

“I remember the win over Chelsea ten years ago [in 2008], of course. That’s a win that I still remember. But we don’t win matches like this so we can take photos and put them on the bedside table, but to push on from this.

“Now we are in a strong position in the group, and we deserve to be too. But nothing is decided, we still have two difficult games to play. Qarabag are a determined squad, and they drew again tonight.”

The midfielder was asked for his thoughts on how the current Roma side is performing.

“I like the results and the way we are trying to play,” he said. “The coach has changed the way we confront the opponent and did so with clarity. We are always aggressive, against everyone, even against teams that in the past we would have waited and been timid with. This is an important change.

"Even in the defeats we did this, we don’t have to talk much about Inter where we played well for almost all the game, but perhaps against Napoli where after the first half in the second half we attacked and pressed well. We know that we are on the right path.”

He added: “Football is much harder than how it is talked about in the bar, we know that and we don’t want to lose our focus. Now we are back to the championship – on Sunday we have another difficult game in a competition where recently we have been doing well.

“After an evening like this, it’s great … I think we should always be grateful to be born Romanisti, even after games like the 7-1s, even after home defeats against Napoli when we don’t play well. I am always grateful to be born Romanisti and so I hope fans remember this also, even on nights that don’t go like tonight’s…”