Roma had to settle for a 1-1 draw from their midweek match against Atalanta.
Starting the game on the back foot, Roma were 1-0 down at the break and there were fears of another big scoreline against a big team.
However, the flow of the game changed after Atalanta’s Robin Gosens was sent off. Bryan Cristante scored an equaliser with a thunderous strike to salvage a point for Roma.
There were chances to turn things completely around, but the necessary conviction was lacking.
Still, a point would have been taken given the struggles Roma had in the reverse fixture and then the first half.
Here’s how Paulo Fonseca reacted.
On the approach to the game
“We knew that it would be a tough game, but we decided to go for it anyway. We pressured them high up the pitch and didn’t let them build from the back.”
On having less possession
“Against Ajax – a great team – and against Torino we didn’t have much of the ball, and during the week we worked on that. Even in the first half we let Atalanta have too much of the ball, and that made things harder. For me, having the ball and controlling the game that way is always important.”
On getting Cristante to mark Ruslan Malinovskiy
“The truth is that Atalanta’s best chances then came on the counter-attack – we made some mistakes when we lost the ball in their half. But Cristante played really well.”
On his reluctance to play Edin Dzeko and Borja Mayoral together
“We’ve tried it before, but it didn’t really work. The team isn’t prepared to play with two strikers on the pitch. I didn’t like how it functioned, to be honest.”
On why he hasn’t worked on changing that
“It’s not just about the two strikers, it’s also about the players in behind them – and that would change the overall identity the team has. What is more, I have to say that we have pretty much always had just one day to really prepare for each game, and that makes it tough to make bigger changes right now.”
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