El Shaarawy: It was a near-perfect game from us

Stephan El Shaarawy scored a crucial goal as Roma came from behind to beat Juventus on Sunday evening.

With the game tied at 1-1, El Shaarawy curled home from just inside the box to turn the game in the home side's favour - in what eventually turned out to be a 3-1 win for the Giallorossi.

Roma showed brain and brawn today, would you agree?

“Yes. It was a near-perfect game from us, in every aspect. In the first half we had a hard time, particularly because we weren’t able to press very well and they made us go round in circles a bit. They also took the lead. However, we did really well to turn things around; it was key to win tonight. Being ahead of Napoli is very important so we’re really happy.”

Comparing yourselves to Juventus, what did that show? Are you close to their level?

“We played the game we needed to, with a great deal of focus and commitment from the entire team. It was a game in which everyone sacrificed themselves and never gave up, right until the very end. Now we’re in second spot and we have to hold onto that position until the end of the season. We just have two games to go and we need to stay focused until they’re done. We knew this game would be decisive in terms of how our season ends. So we can’t let second spot slip from our grasp; it’s very important to us.”

Compared to other moments in the season, today in a big game you didn’t lose focus. Has something changed?

“We knew this was the decisive game of our season, so we prepared as best we could during the week. We knew we couldn’t mess this up and tonight we showed all we needed to, from our commitment to our determination, ruthlessness and willingness to sacrifice ourselves. It wasn’t easy but we’re very pleased with what we did out there today.”

With the game balanced to start with, what did Roma produce to ultimately win the game?

“Yes it was very balanced to start with in this game, especially in terms of pressure because initially we couldn’t close down all the spaces, as they were doing well to move the ball around. That’s why we needed to sit back a tad and be able to hit back at them. They’re very strong at the back, of course, and we knew we wouldn’t get many opportunities, but we did extremely well to make the most of the ones we had. That proved decisive in the end.”