El Shaarawy reflects on squandered chances

Rodrigo De Paul scored the only goal of the game for the hosts, despite Roma dominating possession and taking 26 shots on goal.

You created a lot of chances but you didn’t make the most of them…

“It’s been a problem in a lot of our games. We seem to create a lot but when we get inside the final third we are not clinical enough, and this was the difference today as well. But I really believe there is clearly the desire and the drive to create chances – just when we are in front of goal, and I include myself in this, we aren’t quite sharp enough.”

After a decent first half, did conceding the goal make things even tougher for you?

“We created a lot of chances in the first half and I’m sure that a goal would have made things more comfortable for us and given us confidence. But after we conceded things became a bit more stretched because we wanted to get back into the game straight away. The game progressed and perhaps we lacked a bit of clarity, perhaps that is what made the difference and meant we weren’t able to get a goal – which hurts.”

The coach wanted the players to take more control, to attack one-on-one, do you agree with that?

“Yes, because they were organised and compact and the boss wanted us to work down the flanks and create one-on-ones where we can try to find an edge. I think in the first half we managed to do that to an extent, with Kluivert trying a lot on one side and me and Kolarov working together on the left. We put in a lot of crosses – but as we know the key thing is to put the ball in the back of the net and unfortunately we didn’t manage that.”

I didn’t see a lot of confidence at times, but the quality was there – how do you explain these highs and lows? Is it down to a lack of consistency?

“At times we’ve lacked consistency, but in terms of trying to play the right way I think that we have often managed to do. I repeat that we need to be more focused in front of goal – for example with the chance I had from Pellegrini, usually I don’t pass up chances like that. It’s a shame because that could have changed the game. As I said, we need to be a bit more clinical in front of goal. We play for Roma, and so we have to take responsibility in games and make the difference.”