Di Francesco: “I take full responsibility for the loss”

“I take full responsibility because the lads tried to do what I asked of them. We were sloppy in terms of the finer details and made too many mistakes from a technical standpoint,” was how Eusebio Di Francesco began his post-match interview after the team’s opening game at the Marassi failed to go to plan. “We didn’t manage to express ourselves in the way that we wanted, but we aren’t looking for excuses. Making a few too many individual mistakes allowed Lazio to hit us on the break. Having said that, they deserved the win and showed they were clearly the better side.”

“We conceded at the end of the first half when we were playing better as a team. The same thing happened in the second half. In general, we didn’t create enough, were hasty and lacked quality between the lines. We didn’t show much personality in a 4-3-3 formation and made it too easy for our opponents. There’s a bitter feeling, but in football it takes just a moment to bounce back. It’s not easy to talk after such a big defeat, but we’ll take the mistakes on board and go again. I want to see a different mentality starting on Tuesday and the desire not to let our heads drop after losing. The Sampdoria fans were our best player out there tonight. They kept singing throughout.”