Dzeko: Important to start with a home win

The Serie A season gets underway at the Stadio Olimpico as Giuseppe Iachini’s squad come to town, and Dzeko believes making the Giallorossi’s ground a fortress could be crucial to a successful season.

“It’s always good to win the first game, especially if you are playing at home,” Dzeko told Roma TV. “If you want to reach big targets you have to win your home games, so it’s an important game.”

He added: “It’s a different game [to Porto]. We play at home, it’s the first game of the season and obviously it’s not going to be an easier game as it’s also the first game for Udinese and they want to do well. But I think we play at home and we want to win our first game at home. Then with three points we can prepare well for the second game against Porto.”

Luciano Spalletti’s squad opened their 2016-17 campaign with a 1-1 draw against Porto at the Estadio do Dragao.

“At the end it was a fair result and also a good result for us, because I think we played 50 minutes with one player less,” Dzeko noted. “So it is a good result for us even if in the first half I think we played very good and maybe we could have scored one or two more goals - but we didn’t and now we have the second game at home when we can decide our future.”

“It’s a different game [to Porto]. We play at home, it’s the first game of the season and obviously it’s not going to be an easier game as it’s also the first game for Udinese and they want to do well. But I think we play at home and we want to win our first game at home."

- Edin Dzeko

Roma begin domestic action with a number of new faces in the squad, following a summer of transfer activity. Dzeko believes the team has been strengthened by the new arrivals, but insists team spirit will be as important as individual quality this term.

“I’ve already been here one year, so I know the players that I played with last year are all good players and the new players that came now they are definitely going to help us,” he said. “We have to be like a team, I don’t like to take one [name to mention as important], because we are one team and we will do it altogether.

“I think all the teams are better this season, because they have bought some new players. But I think we are strong also and we want to start the first game with a win and that’s the only thing that counts at the moment.”

Dzeko has reason to be confident going into Saturday’s game – his first goal of last season came in his side’s first home game, against Juventus, while another one of his eight league goals came against the team from Udine.

The Bosnia & Herzegovina international has been prolific in pre-season, and hopes to take that form onwards.

“Yeah, last season I didn’t have pre-season with Roma and I didn’t have many games to play in pre-season so obviously then it was maybe a bit more difficult in the season,” he said. “But now I feel ready, I feel prepared, I think I did a very good pre-season and I want to bring that into the season.

“I want to do better than I did last season – that’s the only target that I have. I want to help my team to win the games and obviously I am there to score goals and I am going to try to score as much as I can.”