Paulo Fonseca went out on a high note at Stadio Olimpico by winning his last home game in charge of Roma in fine fashion – overseeing a 2-0 win over Lazio.
Going into the game having never beaten Roma’s rivals, Fonseca put that right as his players earned a comfortable, well-fought win. Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored in the first half after a fine Edin Dzeko assist and Pedro fired in a brilliant strike to wrap it up in the second half.
Here’s how the coach reacted to a deserved derby win.
On doing it for the fans
“I’m pleased, obviously. Both because we’ve won the derby and because we really owed the fans something. I’m pleased for them, because they’ve always supported the team.”
On how Ebrima Darboe is influencing the team
“I think we’ve improved, especially after Ebrima Darboe came into the side: he changed a lot about the way we play. He’s a courageous kid, who likes to play forward, who finds spaces vertically. It was really interesting to see how the team improved with Darboe in there.”
On using a back four again
“I have to be honest, I changed it again after the first leg of the semi-final against Manchester [United] – for the second leg we needed to take a few more risks. But with the change the team played well and there wasn’t really a reason to go back to three.”
On Jose Mourinho
“Jose knows that I am here to help, here to help Roma. If he needs any advice, I am here for him.”
On not playing like this in previous big games
“The team was very compact and focused – we didn’t make many mistakes at all. It would have been great to have always played like that – but we can’t think about the past now. We are in the position we are and we have won a key game, for us and our fans.”
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