Eusebio Di Francesco admits Roma “shot ourselves in the foot” with a 1-1 draw at Genoa after Daniele De Rossi’s foolish red card.

Stephan El Shaarawy had put them in front at Marassi with a well-taken low volley, but De Rossi saw red and gave away a penalty for slapping Gianluca Lapadula in the face.

Eusebio Di Francesco admits Roma “shot ourselves in the foot” with a 1-1 draw at Genoa after Daniele De Rossi’s foolish red card.

Stephan El Shaarawy had put them in front at Marassi with a well-taken low volley, but De Rossi saw red and gave away a penalty for slapping Gianluca Lapadula in the face.

“It’s a pity and De Rossi knows he made a mistake, especially because with the current instruments in place, you don’t get away with these things,” the Coach told Mediaset Premium.

“I didn’t like the refereeing in general, as we had 70% possession and Genoa only one yellow card. It feels a little absurd in the general progress of the game and I told the referee that. It’s important to protect the teams that try to play the game.

“Genoa forced us to play at a slow tempo, as they sat back and waited to go on the counter. We did well to break the deadlock, but then paid a heavy price for that naïve error, not just because of the penalty, but also as we were down to 10 men.

“It’s a shame, because we shot ourselves in the foot here. We’re improving and we are aware of that, so these are two dropped points.

“De Rossi is not a kid, he takes on his share of the responsibility. We must work together to avoid these situations in future. When we play our football, we are a great team, but when we drop to the level of our opponents and get sucked into that attitude, it shouldn’t happen.

“It’s not easy to play at Marassi. El Shaarawy was less sharp than usual on the left and Diego Perotti was struggling. If we want to find an adjective for the team today, it would be naïve, not arrogant. We had the game on track, we were controlling the ball and from a corner it was not a dangerous cross, so we shot ourselves in the foot.”

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