Strootman: Clearly we didn't play our best - but we believe we can still reach the final

The loss in the first leg of the Coppa Italia semi-final means the Giallorossi have it all to do when the two sides meet again at the start of April.

How would you describe that game?

“It's a bad defeat - we weren't at our best today. We didn't start off too badly and we had a chance to score. We kept possession well but found it hard to carve out openings. Lazio played well, got their goal and then sat back. It was really difficult to find space then. We weren't able to score and unfortunately we conceded a second.”

You go straight into your league meeting with Napoli now.

“It's up to us to prove how good we are. We'll give it our all to try and win something. We must produce a strong response in our next game against Napoli. We're professionals, we're paid good money and we have to be ready all the time. You certainly want to get straight back out there after a bad defeat like today's.”

Were you surprised by any of the Lazio players in particular?

“We knew they were good. [Ciro] Immobile was excellent today and so were their midfielders. I want to look forward now, though. We have another game against Lazio in month's time and we'll need to show that we're better than them.”

Do you still believe you can make the final?

“Of course we believe. Otherwise I'd be here congratulating Lazio on reaching the final. We have to show we're the better side on the pitch and how much we want to be in the final.”