Spalletti: We showed great grit and determination

Roma won 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico, thanks to Radja Nainggolan's solo strike.

[Radja] Nainggolan said you wouldn't have won a game like this last season. Do you agree?

“If he's talking about the grit and determination we showed, our willingness to make a fight of it, then yes, I'd definitely agree. But Nainggolan won a few games last year too! We came up against a stubborn Milan side tonight and it was hard. Vincenzo Montella is right when he says that Milan are back at the top table. We can expect to see them there or thereabouts come the end of the season too. They started the season under the radar and they don't have so many big names but they've got plenty of quality about them. We did really well to come away with the win.”

Juve are up next. How will Roma prepare for them?

“We want to win on Saturday just as we want to win every match. We kept our second consecutive clean sheet today. Now we need to recover our energy, see how Bruno Peres is and prepare for it properly. If you give Juve half a chance, they're capable of scoring two. We gave away very little today apart from on the penalty – which was clear but [Gianluca] Lapadula did go looking for it. Our football was less enjoyable to watch than at other times but we've got a shape to our team. In the second half [Daniele] De Rossi, [Kevin] Strootman and Nainggolan really upped their game and we gained the upper hand in midfield. We should have kept our heads a bit better late on but we'd carved out some decent chances before then too.”

Who were you annoyed with at half time?

“I was a bit annoyed because Peres had got injured and some people were complaining about the loss of time. He was brought down though – it's not as if he went and injured himself.”

What's still not working as you'd like?

"We did a lot of running. The two sides got stretched out quite often. We need to keep hold of the ball for longer spells but instead we tried to hurt them and ended up losing it again – that's one area where we were a little short on quality. You need a bit of everything against Juventus and it's especially important to play at a high tempo. You can't let them control things because they know how to play. When you've got the energy, you take the game to them; when you need to catch your breath back, you let them have the ball – which is what happened a few times tonight. In any case, I think our shape was good. We may not have played at an especially high tempo but we never afforded them much space.”

Are you worried about Juve?

“We worry about everyone, even their unavailable players and their fans, because Juve are a superb team.”