De Rossi: We go into the Youth League feeling confident

Roma will meet APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus in the first round, with a potential tie with either Cork City or HJK Helsinki awaiting the winner...

What’s your reaction to drawing APOEL?

“It will mean a lot of travelling. The game will fall between two important league matches.”

The winner will face either Cork City or Helsinki in November.

“After playing Moscow two years ago, I’m confident that we’re capable of playing anywhere, regardless of the temperature.

“Right now we don’t know much about how strong the teams are. APOEL won their league last season, but as is the case with us the team undergoes big changes every year. We still need to evaluate what kind of match it’s going to be.”

Are you pleased to have avoided the big names like Ajax and Anderlecht?

“There’s not much in a name because you have to wait and see how good each team is every season. All of these sides won their leagues last season so I’m sure they have well-organised clubs behind them that have a lot of belief in their youth academies. You can’t win a title without that.”

This is your third straight year in the UEFA Youth League. It must be a great experience for your players.

“Absolutely, we’ve become accustomed to it. It would be tough not to take part in this competition, whether we qualify through the senior side in the Champions League or by winning our own league. It’s a fantastic formative experience for the players and for us all. We go into it feeling confident – it’s different this year because it’s knock-out football right from the off, but we’re happy to be involved.”

Can you emulate your semi-final and quarter-final finishes of the last two seasons?

“Our objective is to go far in the competition. Last year we got to the quarter-finals but we were quite unlucky in that we had three all-or-nothing matches, all of them away from home. In any case, I think Roma’s youth academy has a great reputation around Europe now.”