De Rossi: ‘Forget Leverkusen, Roma focus is Atalanta’

Daniele De Rossi wants Roma to treat Bayer Leverkusen as ‘a memory’ now they go into a decisive clash with all-attack Atalanta for Champions League football.

It kicks off at the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo at 19.45 UK time (18.45 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s five Serie A games on the LIVEBLOG.

Confidence is inevitably lower in the Giallorossi camp after two points from three Serie A rounds and Thursday’s Europa League semi-final exit to Bayer Leverkusen.

It is therefore the worst time to have this head-to-head for fifth place, especially knowing that failure to win will mathematically guarantee Bologna qualify for the Champions League.

“Bayer Leverkusen must remain a memory now, an unpleasant one for the result, a pleasant one for our performance over the two legs,” De Rossi told DAZN.

“Our objective now must be to qualify for the Champions League, we’ve been chasing it for a long time and we’re now in the decisive clashes. If that wasn’t enough to motivate the team, it would be a serious problem.”

De Rossi has no room for rotation

With Paulo Dybala and Leonardo Spinazzola injured, plus Tammy Abraham not fully fit and Renato Sanches suffering from flu symptoms, De Rossi can barely rotate his squad.

“These are two different competitions, there is no time to be tired, sad or disappointed. It’s separate, very important for our future and for what the Roma of next season will look like.”

De Rossi revealed he had asked Gian Piero Gasperini to visit him at the Atalanta training ground to study his methods, but never got the opportunity.

“No, as I went to Argentina, then the pandemic broke out and I never got the chance. However, he was one of the first I asked to give me some lectures on coaching and he said I should continue playing.”

Atalanta have scored 94 goals in 50 competitive games this season, so has De Rossi figured out how to stop them scoring?

“Evidently nobody has figured it out yet. They have a lot of strong strikers, but also attack in numbers, they go in from all angles and it is tough to track them all.”