Gasperini: ‘Roma made too many mistakes, we have to do better against Napoli’

Gian Piero Gasperini was the first to admit that Roma did not play to the best of their ability despite picking up a 2-1 win over Midtjylland in the Europa League on Thursday evening, and has implored his players to do better when they come up against reigning Serie A champions, Napoli, in the league on Sunday. 

Roma moved up to 13th place in the Europa League table after a 2-1 win over Midtjylland at the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday evening: Neil El-Aynaoui opening the scoring after seven minutes, Stephan El Shaarawy adding another seven minutes before time. 

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

Despite the fact that this was Roma’s first home victory in the Europa League this season, and that Midtjylland had a 100% win record before kick-off, Gasperini was not best pleased with his side’s showing. 

“We missed an opportunity to play a better game. We conceded a lot of chances. We need to recover our energy and play a different sort of game on Sunday,” he said during his post-match press conference. 

Gasperini also provided a brief update on Manu Kone, who was forced off injured during the first-half: “Let’s wait and see. He’s got a bad bruise, it doesn’t seem serious.” 

Among those who were criticised for their performances on Thursday night was Wesley, despite his otherwise encouraging displays for the Giallorossi so far this season. 

“Wesley made too many mistakes, which is a shame because he’s got a great engine,” Gasperini said. 

“The mistakes don’t necessarily reflect on him, though. We had tough opponents on the wings. We were missing something from a technical point of view. We didn’t develop play in the best way. There was some growth, then it slowed down a bit. We have to do well on Sunday now. 

“Ghilardi did well. He had a great game. He might have lost a couple of balls too many but we could have done better in lots of different ways.” 

Up next for Roma, who sit at the top of the Serie A standings, is a tough test against the reigning champions, Napoli. 

“We’re eagerly anticipating the game against Napoli, it’s fair enough that we think about that. However, to prepare well, you also have to play well,” Gasperini said. 

“We broke the deadlock early, then we relaxed and then conceded at the end. You have to play every game until the end, you can’t be looking forward to getting in the shower afterwards.” 

And what does he expect to see when Roma host Napoli on Sunday? 

“The teams know each other well. Napoli’s strength is their squad, they have a great team, they’re champions of Italy. We know that we have to play to the best of our ability. We’ll play against one of the strongest teams in Italy. 

“Unlike we did against Inter and Milan, we have to get a better result. We measure ourselves against the strongest teams, let’s see where we are.”