AS Roma captain, Daniele De Rossi has frowned at Liverpool style of football after his side were beaten 5-2 at Anfield in the Champions League semifinal first leg on Tuesday.
De Rossi also assured that they will do to Liverpool what they did to Barcelona in the quarterfinal.
Roma came from 4-1 down to beat Barcelona 3-0 in Rome, going through to the semifinal on away goal rule.
Liverpool adopted the ‘long ball’ tactics which proved key to their thumping 5-2 victory over the Giallorossi.
There were times when Roma, and particularly their bewildred defence, looked totally incapable of dealing with Liverpool, which De Rossi has put down to their bypassing of the midfield.
The Italian told Mediaset Premium, “Not having seen the game back, it would be wrong for me to give a tactical view of what happened.
“Liverpool are strong, let’s not forget, and they did very well, but we had 20-25 very good minutes at the start.
“They constantly went for the long ball, from any area of the pitch, and it’s difficult to cover that space when there are players who are always faster than you.
“We got the feeling they were going over the midfield completely, so we couldn’t intercept the ball.
“Here we started strong, but then suffered under their pace and the ferocity of their attacks. We have to learn those lessons for the second leg.
“We felt at Camp Nou that we were really in it and could certainly break them down. Here, we had a total black-out.
“We still need three goals, Liverpool are on the same level as Barcelona, so we know it’s possible. It can be done and we’ve done it before.”
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