Venezia manager Eusebio Di Francesco expressed his frustration following his team’s 2-1 loss to Roma. Despite a strong performance for much of the match, Venezia ultimately succumbed to a late Roma comeback.
Di Francesco began by stating, “If there was a team that deserved to win, it was us. We didn’t concede anything to Roma. The fault for their victory is entirely ours. We’re going home empty-handed. We played good football for the first 60-70 minutes. When you need to close out games, you have to close them out. Roma has the technical quality, and they turned the result around. We can’t afford such errors after an excellent performance like today’s. We paid for our inexperience.”
When asked about Roma’s young talent Niccolò Pisilli, who scored the winning goal, Di Francesco was gracious: “He was very good. Congratulations to him. Help him in his growth.”
Addressing Venezia’s inability to secure victories despite good performances, Di Francesco remained optimistic: “We look up and hope that in the long run, something will pay off. This year the team is starting to play football, and I’m happy with the game. We need to smooth out some errors, but we’re getting there.”
On motivating his young squad after such a disappointing loss, the manager emphasized a supportive approach: “You need to give a lot of carrot and less stick; these boys need a lot of carrot. What can I say to a team that tries to express itself and play its own football? Well done, good interpretation, we could have done much better. Today I saw many positive things.”
Di Francesco also defended his team’s playing style, noting that Venezia has “more quality in waiting than in recovery.” He highlighted their quick passing to exploit spaces and emphasized that possession statistics don’t tell the whole story: “Roma has more quality, and we were less skilled, but we created many dangerous actions despite having only 30% possession. When you win, you don’t even look at this data.”
