Morgan De Sanctis blamed Roma’s midfield and defence for allowing a last-gasp CSKA Moscow equaliser.
Morgan De Sanctis blamed Roma’s midfield and defence for allowing a last-gasp CSKA Moscow equaliser.
“Clearly considering the game and the goal, there are huge regrets. It means we’ll have to fight for qualification to the last minute of the last match,” the goalkeeper told Sky Sport Italia after the 1-1 draw.
“It’s a huge shame we didn’t win, because the performance showed we deserved it. CSKA did well to believe right to the end, but we had the chances to finish off the game and didn’t take them.”
The equaliser was practically the final ball, a Vasili Berezutski cross that sailed over everyone into the far top corner, but De Sanctis angrily refused to take any responsibility.
“For me, we should not have been in that situation. At the 93rd minute we had the ball, so it’s just unacceptable. We went too deep.
“I never do this, but if you get me involved in this I will get very angry. There were three people in front of me. If Dzagoev touched the ball, Tosic would clearly have been offside, as he was in my eyeline. In any case, I was too bitter and angry to even protest.
“Fortunately you can hear the audio in the empty stadium, so you can tell I asked the defence to push up, not go deeper.
“It’s a shame we didn’t win a game that would’ve put us in a very favourable situation, which could’ve allowed us to celebrate tonight. We now have to roll our sleeves up and believe that in two weeks’ time we can beat Manchester City, who are also mathematically not out of it yet.”
Much will depend on what Manchester City do tonight against Bayern Munich.