Rudi Garcia insisted “Roma did everything to score and did not play badly” against BATE Borisov. “We did qualify.”
The Giallorossi needed a victory this evening to be sure of a spot in the Champions League Round of 16, but a 0-0 draw meant they had to rely on Barcelona holding Bayer Leverkusen 1-1.
Strangely, Roma were jeered by the crowd after the final whistle and announcement they had made it through.
Rudi Garcia insisted “Roma did everything to score and did not play badly” against BATE Borisov. “We did qualify.”
The Giallorossi needed a victory this evening to be sure of a spot in the Champions League Round of 16, but a 0-0 draw meant they had to rely on Barcelona holding Bayer Leverkusen 1-1.
Strangely, Roma were jeered by the crowd after the final whistle and announcement they had made it through.
“We know that when we don’t have the Curva Sud, the atmosphere is different,” the Coach told Mediaset Premium.
“The team did everything to score with 24 attempts. Obviously we could’ve done better and Wojciech Szczesny performed a crucial save, but ultimately we did qualify.
“The fact we achieved this qualification at this moment with such a negative atmosphere sends an even stronger message.
“That means we did enough to get through ahead of the other teams and that is what really matters in the group stage.
“We could’ve done better, but a team with 24 shots is not playing badly. I don’t have to list the players we’ve got on the treatment table, but look at the bench and see we had no other options attacking.
“Edin Dzeko had cramp and I couldn’t change him. We kept going, we heard Leverkusen were not winning, so we have achieved the first target of the season.
“We are very happy, especially as we’ll have more strengths in February and above all be in a different period of form.
“I know the Barcelona goalkeeper had a great game. We wanted to win, we didn’t manage it, but there was another result that could get us through. In the end the draw was precious.
“At this moment we need to get results even through difficulties. We have to recover quickly to face Napoli, seeing as we used up a lot of energy tonight.
“I compliment the lads, because qualification was by no means to be taken for granted.”