Alberto De Rossi: We weren't at the races in the first half

The Giallorossi U19s made a slow start to the game and fell behind when Bernardo De Palma broke the deadlock in the 39th minute.

“We just weren't at the races in the first half,” the coach lamented after the league match on Saturday afternoon. “We'll sit down and look at why that happened but we must improve our mentality – for Roma and for these lads and their futures.

“Every match is different. You have to take them one at a time and we didn't do that today. Some of the guys were still in Rome, some of them in Eindhoven.

“We should also say that our opponents were excellent. They were really up for it, unlike ourselves. And in the first half they were encouraged by the fact that we just didn't turn up.”

Roma improved after the break and found an injury-time equaliser through Edoardo Soleri from a corner.

“We came into it more in the second half – there would have been something seriously wrong if we hadn't,” De Rossi went on. “And even though we were playing into the wind and with awful weather conditions we managed to produce a lot of decent football. We showed what we're about.”

The draw means Roma's lead at the top of the table has been cut to three points after second-placed Palermo beat Crotone 1-0 and the Sicilians are in fact the Giallorossi's next opponents. They're due to visit Trigoria for a top-of-the-table clash on Friday 4 March at 12:00 CET.