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Here’s what our coach had to say.
Here’s the video of your celebrating Roma’s decisive goal.
“I have won in added time, but on very rare occasions have I gone from being down 1-2 to winning 3-2. Tonight was the first time that I didn’t watch a penalty. I looked at our fans: if they celebrated it would mean that we scored, but in the end they showed it on the big screen, so I saw it anyway.”
After Mandela Keita scored, you sat on the bench. Did you think it was over?
“No, I never think that a match is over until the referee blows the final whistle. But of course, it was a difficult situation, there was little time left and we were behind. I was thinking about the chances we’d had and about [Zion] Suzuki’s amazing saves. I was also thinking about the Conference League.”
You were very upset about how you’d handled the second half, but the team turned things around.
“It’s not easy at this stage of the season. Players can underperform because there’s a change in the stakes and in the amount of pressure. We conceded a very bad goal. The shot went between three players and Parma gained confidence. [Gabriel] Strefezza did a great job, but those key moments are really infuriating because they could have been avoided. Taking the lead once again against a team that have gained confidence, after using up so much energy, was no easy feat. We had three or four major chances where we failed to capitalise and instead conceded two goals. It looked like things were not going to go our way. The spirit of this team is truly commendable. We had countless corner kicks and finally we got it right as the game was drawing to an end. We made a huge comeback and to me it was a clear-cut penalty. I understand how Parma must feel, as losing like this is devastating. However, we deserved this win. We put in a good performance against a very good and motivated opponent.”
About the penalty, did Malen and Dybala sort it out between themselves? Do you want to say anything more about Malen?
“There’s a technique behind it: everyone was going towards Dybala to distract him. When they went away, we passed the ball to Malen.
“He’s quiet, he doesn’t talk a lot. He has settled in very well. He’s not a leader, but he’s outstanding. He always looks calm and really cares. He’s extremely motivated. He’s raised our level as a team and we’ve grown very fond of him.”
Do these matches make you want to keep Dybala?
“It’s a shame that he was out for so many months. Hopefully, it won’t come back to haunt us. Paulo was performing very well before he had to stop playing for three months. I was sure that this was going to be an extraordinary season for him because I’d seen him play at extremely high levels, so it’s really a pity. But now he’s back. Also, he’s full of energy: he was still fresh and sharp right until the end of the game.”
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