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Edoardo Soleri and Filippo Franchi struck in the final minutes to tip the tie in Roma's favour after the scores had been locked at 1-1 for most of the encounter following Davide Frattesi's early opener and Lorenzo Crisanto's second-half penalty save.
The result puts the Giallorossi firmly in the driving seat ahead of the return leg in the Domestic Champions path second round, to be played on 23 November.
“It's another great win and a superb performance from our boys, even though there was a bit less quality in our play than usual today,” De Rossi said after the match.
“That was partly down to our opponents because they upped the tempo and played with more intensity than what we'd seen in their previous matches we watched. It probably had something to do with the magnificent crowd behind them today – they kept egging them on to pull out all the stops.
“Our boys soaked up the pressure and managed to come away with this fantastic win.
“We can be happy with lots of things today: the result, the way we dug in and of course the experience gleaned from playing at a full stadium like this.”
Roma went into the game fresh from winning the Primavera Super Cup at the Olimpico last Friday and De Rossi admitted his players were probably still feeling some of the after-effects.
“The lads surprised me once again today with their ability and maturity, although clearly their excellent performance against Inter affected them somewhat.
“Games like today are exciting learning experiences. It was a tight contest and the result was always in the balance. Our opponents played exceptionally well.
“We perhaps felt a bit drained mentally from the last few days and our passing wasn't quite as sharp as usual. We rarely managed to release our forwards apart from with long balls and, more tellingly, we made lots of mistakes.”
After Frattesi had opened the scoring for Giallorossi Under-19s, the hosts quickly levelled matters through Aaron Drinan. In the second half Crisanto donned his spot-kick saving gloves to deny Drinan from 12 yards and the match looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw as it entered the final five minutes, before Soleri and Franchi popped up in quick succession to hand the Giallorossi a two-goal advantage going into the return leg in Italy.
De Rossi explained: “We threw on an extra striker towards the end. It was a bit of a gamble and it did stretch us. Once we entered the opposition half we found space opening up for us but we weren't as accurate as we have been on other occasions.
“I hoped the lads would be able to find the right pass. We were a tad lucky on the second goal but the third was wonderful to watch as lots of our players poured forward looking to score.”
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