Roma President Jim Pallotta gave “huge kudos to Eusebio Di Francesco” and said knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League “shows who Roma are.”
The 4-1 first leg loss at Camp Nou seemed to be disastrous, but a 3-0 victory at the Olimpico sent them through to the Champions League semi-finals.
Roma President Jim Pallotta gave “huge kudos to Eusebio Di Francesco” and said knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League “shows who Roma are.”
The 4-1 first leg loss at Camp Nou seemed to be disastrous, but a 3-0 victory at the Olimpico sent them through to the Champions League semi-finals.
“Last season the Diego Perotti goal at the last minute to get us into the Champions League was pretty amazing, but this topped it,” the President told Mediaset Premium.
“I think it’s the best win. Going down to Barcelona 4-1, where we were unlucky and could’ve had some penalty kicks. Knowing we had to come into this win 3-0, if they scored then we’d need five, it was incredible.
“I have never seen in my five years here a Roma side play like that for 94 minutes. We dominated them. It was incredible!
“We’ve been trying to build on what we’ve been doing over the last five years. We sometimes take three steps up and one step down.
“The most important thing is the stadium, because that radically changes what Roma are and can be. We could do so much more with that extra revenue.
“As for tonight, I want to give huge kudos to Eusebio Di Francesco, because the Coach made many changes to the system and it worked brilliantly. He deserves credit for that, as he changed the way we needed to play in order to make this happen.
“Why shouldn’t we believe in reaching the Final? Everybody thought Barcelona were the best team in the world, but being 4-1 down and coming back shows who Roma are.”