Cristante: ‘Roma fans let us hear their disappointment’ at Europa League loss
Bryan Cristante admits Roma fans ‘let us hear their disappointment’ at the Europa League exit to Bologna after a 4-3 defeat in extra time. ‘We seemed in control.’
The Giallorossi were never leading at any point over the two legs of this Round of 16 tie, as Lorenzo Pellegrini equalised after the Federico Bernardeschi opener at the Stadio Dall’Ara.
When it came to the second leg, Jonathan Rowe had put Bologna in front, then after Evan Ndicka’s opener, the visitors surged 3-1 up through Bernardeschi and Santiago Castro.
Roma managed to force extra time with Donyell Malen’s spot-kick and another Pellegrini strike, but Nicolò Cambiaghi sealed it to send Bologna through to the Europa League quarter-final against Aston Villa.
Cristante recognises Roma errors
“We shouldn’t have conceded all these goals. We went behind, we did so well to get back into it, seemed in control during extra time and ready to score the decisive goal, but instead it went the other way,” Cristante told Sky Sport Italia.
When Roma players went over to the Curva Sud to salute the fans after the final whistle, but the ultras jeered and reacted angrily, telling them not to bother.
“We are all disappointed to be out of the competition, the fans let us hear their disappointment. It’s tough, because we had got it back on track, we were convinced we had the right approach, but we lost,” added Cristante.
Roma’s difficult spell therefore continues, as now they are without a win in five competitive games and slipped down from fourth to sixth in the Serie A table.
Are they struggling with the injury crisis and starting to feel fatigue from having the same players in every match?
“You can feel fatigue at certain points of the season, but we were there, we were in the right position to get through to the next stage of the Europa League. We cannot complain about fatigue, we’ve just got to roll our sleeves up and keep going,” concluded Cristante.