Bartoli calls on side to make amends against Fiorentina

Roma Women captain Elisa Bartoli knows her side have to show their mental strength this weekend, as they look to bounce back against Fiorentina.

The Giallorosse host La Viola at Stadio Tre Fontane on Sunday afternoon, giving Betty Bavagnoli’s players an immediate opportunity to make amends for the heartbreaking loss to AC Milan against another of the league’s biggest sides.

With the race for second place in Serie A only heating up, a victory would be hugely important for both sides – and especially for Roma, after the way they threw away a two-goal advantage to lose in Milan on Monday.

“Against Milan we were able to get two goals ahead and we were playing well – but unfortunately in the final 20 minutes we dropped a bit deep, we started to suffer physically and we weren’t able to keep the ball,” Bartoli acknowledged.

“We conceded the first goal in a situation where the referee could have done better, and then we lost our heads a bit and conceded another two.

"There’s definitely a lot of regret and anger after that, but we have to analyse the mistakes we made. We can’t allow ourselves to remain disillusioned though – there’s another important game on Sunday, and we have to bounce back.”

With Fiorentina opening up a slight gap in the race for second, Bartoli’s side really do need to produce a winning performance against her old club to keep alive their hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League.

But, having won 2-0 in the first meeting earlier this season, they know they have the ability to do just that.

“I consider Fiorentina a great side,” Bartoli said.

“In my opinion, maybe there are a bit more ready than us to finish in the top two because they have been together as a group for so long.

“But we will play our way; we’ve picked up a few good results against them so we will go out there and do our best to make up for the loss in our last game.”

She added: “Playing against Fiorentina is always an emotional occasion for me – to be honest I don’t really enjoy it, because I have so many happy memories from my time there.

"But Roma is in my heart, it’s my city. The week before the game is always a bit stressful, but it’s also always nice to see my old teammates.”

With last weekend’s defeat leaving the season on something of a knife-edge, Bartoli hopes her teammates grasp the opportunity presented to them to achieve something special over the weeks ahead.

“I expect to see an aggressive side [the rest of this season], a side that isn’t afraid to show exactly what it is made of,” she said.

“We have so much potential, there are so many good young players and I hope they really begin to understand what they can achieve – that we can really make a leap and produce something special in the league or in the cup, that we can be right up there and that Roma can really dream.”