Roma’s Eusebio Di Francesco: I Don’t Need my Team to Tell Me about Salah

Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. (Getty Images)
Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. (Getty Images)
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Roma’s Eusebio Di Francesco: I Don’t Need my Team to Tell Me about Salah

Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. (Getty Images)
Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco. (Getty Images)

Words race out of Eusebio Di Francesco’s mouth like cars entering il Gra, the orbital motorway that encircles the city of Rome. They are going a mile a minute, bumper to bumper, yet the man behind the wheel somehow finds a way to transmit an overwhelming sense of calm.

Roma’s manager speaks fast because this is no time to drop a gear following his team’s return to their Trigoria training base after a vital league win away at Spal. They had barely one day before they packed up again and flew to Liverpool for the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.

“This season has been one of great growth for us,” he says, eyes bright in defiance of the bags beneath them. “In recent years Roma had not managed to compete through to the latter stages of multiple competitions. We are still competing [for a top-four spot] in Serie A, where Liverpool have already secured a bit more certainty that they will be back in the Champions League next year.”

Roma began this weekend third, just a point clear of Internazionale in fifth. The game against Liverpool will be their eighth in 25 days, a stretch that has included not only a two-legged quarter-final with Barcelona but also a draining derby against a Lazio side fighting to leapfrog them in the table.

If this team is running close to empty, you would not know it from the grins on players’ faces as they arrive for training. “What we do is a job but it needs to be fun, too,” says Di Francesco. “It should be a joy. That’s what I always say to the lads. The first thought is to prepare to enjoy ourselves together, and work hard. They have to enjoy themselves. This is a game first of all.”

That lesson was learned during Di Francesco’s own playing career. As a member of the Roma team that won the Scudetto in 2001 – only the third in their club’s history – what he remembers above all is the way that he and his team-mates used to spend time together off the pitch, hanging out to play cards or shoot pool.

He does not see great similarities between that team and this one. “Because these are completely different times. There’s a greater professionalism now, as there should be, but back then there was more of a family spirit. That’s been lost a little bit, with social media, with technology, with the arrival of new ways of working. If those two things could come together, that would be the ideal. And we are trying here to make it so.”

That he thinks a great deal about players’ psychology is obvious. After Roma overturned a three-goal deficit in the second leg of their quarter-final against Barcelona, pundits rushed to acclaim his tactical nous, switching for the first time to a three-man defense: some move for a man who has always insisted that 4-3-3 is the “ideal formation”.

Yet Di Francesco frames the change differently. “Football is dynamic,” he asserts. “Even when you talk about a four-man defense, you often end up defending as a three, or even a two, depending on the game situation.

“My decision to change the system was linked to the fact that with some teams, with the characteristics of certain players, a three-man defense can give you a little bit of extra physicality. You get a little bit of extra strength – some of that just in the heads of the players themselves. Sometimes, especially in Europe, you need a little bit more physicality.”

That was certainly the case against Barcelona, bullied into submission by Roma’s muscular midfield trio of Radja Nainggolan, Kevin Strootman and Daniele De Rossi. Does Di Francesco plan to repeat the ruse against Liverpool? He would hardly tell us if he did, yet he does observe that Jürgen Klopp’s team are a long way from the old English stereotype of long balls and reducers.

Appointed last summer, Di Francesco never had a chance to work with Mohamed Salah. If there is any regret at missing out on the chance to coach such a talent, then he hides it well, though he does note his players’ praise for “a great guy, a great professional, a hard worker”.

“I don’t need them to tell me,” he says with a smile when asked if he has sought out advice from his defenders on how best to frustrate Salah. “His qualities are very clear. Don’t forget that I prepared games against him in Italy, too. But the fact lots of our players know him well, that can be an advantage.”

Salah has scored 41 goals this season, yet it was his assists last year at Roma that helped Edin Dzeko to reach 39. The Bosnian has a more modest 20 this time around, and Di Francesco offers frankly that “he has alternated good matches with not-so-good ones”. The good, though, have been very good indeed. He notched a double at Stamford Bridge and scored in both legs against Barcelona.

Does Di Francesco think Manchester City made a mistake in letting go of a player so capable of taking the biggest games in hand? “It seems to me Guardiola loves a different type of forward. One who’s a little more mobile, a little faster. Edin is a fantastic player, but with different physical and technical attributes to the ones Guardiola wants.”

What Di Francesco seeks most in his own players is a desire to be part of something. Asked whether he is grateful to have a pair of Romans in his team – De Rossi and Alessandro Florenzi – he replies with a “yes”. “But I think every player should have that sense of belonging to the place where they play. Not just those guys. When I was at Sassuolo, Sassuolo were the most beautiful team in the world, the best, I was black and green [the colors of their shirt]. Now I’m yellow and red, not out of hypocrisy, but because we all need to have that sense of belonging in our work. Every person needs to feel that passion and the love for their team.”

He is banging the table now, swept away with the force of his own sentiment. Italy’s biggest clubs first came calling for him in the summer of 2016, yet he turned them down then because he could not stand to walk away from Sassuolo in a year when he had just led them to their first ever Europa League qualification.

Di Francesco believes in seeing a project through to its conclusion. For Roma, he hopes, a first Champions League semi-final in 34 years is just the beginning.

The Guardian Sport



Atletico Madrid Squanders Lead and Loses Opening LaLiga Match for 1st Time Under Simeone 

Espanyol's players celebrate at the end of the Spanish LaLiga soccer match between RCD Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, in Barcelona, Spain, 17 August 2025. (EPA)
Espanyol's players celebrate at the end of the Spanish LaLiga soccer match between RCD Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, in Barcelona, Spain, 17 August 2025. (EPA)
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Atletico Madrid Squanders Lead and Loses Opening LaLiga Match for 1st Time Under Simeone 

Espanyol's players celebrate at the end of the Spanish LaLiga soccer match between RCD Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, in Barcelona, Spain, 17 August 2025. (EPA)
Espanyol's players celebrate at the end of the Spanish LaLiga soccer match between RCD Espanyol and Atletico Madrid, in Barcelona, Spain, 17 August 2025. (EPA)

Despite debuting most of its new signings, Atletico Madrid couldn't avoid conceding two late goals and losing its opening Spanish league match for the first-ever time under coach Diego Simeone.

Host Espanyol's 2-1 win on Sunday was Atletico's first opening defeat since Simeone took over in late 2011. It hadn't previously lost an opening league game since 2009.

It was a good start for Espanyol under the ownership of England-based group Velocity Sport Limited and its American shareholders.

“What a wonderful way to start the season, with a win against Atletico Madrid!” US businessman Alan Pace posted on Instagram after attending the match in Barcelona.

Simeone started the match with five of the club's new signings for the season — Álex Baena, Thiago Almada, Johnny Cardoso, David Hancko and Matteo Ruggeri. Giacomo Raspadori also made his debut coming off the bench in the second half.

Atletico took the lead with Julián Alvarez's free kick in the 37th minute but conceded goals by Miguel Rubio in the 73rd and Pere Milla in the 84th.

“It happens,” Simeone said. “The result hurts, but it’s going to make us improve and grow. I’m left with all the good things the team did.”

Last season, Atletico only twice lost a league match that it was leading.

“We played a very good first half and we had the match under control in the second,” Atletico midfielder Koke said. “But after their first goal they turned things around.”

Barcelona began the defense of its Spanish league title with a comfortable 3-0 win at nine-man Mallorca on Saturday. Real Madrid hosts Osasuna on Tuesday

Nico leads Athletic

With transfer rumors in the past, Nico Williams led Athletic Bilbao to a 3-2 win over Sevilla in its opening Spanish league match.

Williams, who had been linked with a move to Barcelona in the offseason but seems set to stay with his boyhood club, put the hosts ahead by converting a 36th-minute penalty kick.

Athletic, coming off a fourth-placed finish last season, added to the lead with a goal from Maroan Sannadi in the 43rd before Sevilla rallied with goals by Dodi Lukebakio in the 60th and Lucien Agoume in the 72nd.

Robert Navarro put Athletic back in front for good by scoring in the 81st.

Goalkeeper Unai Simon helped the hosts secure the victory as Sevilla pressed forward to the end.

It was Athletic's first match with Iñaki Williams, Nico Williams' older brother, as its main captain — a first for a Black player at the club that traditionally only fields players from Spain’s northern Basque Country region or adjoining areas.

Depleted Getafe wins away

Getafe got off to a 2-0 win at Celta Vigo with second-half goals from Adrián Liso and Christantus Uche.

The Madrid club had a depleted squad after not being able to register many of its new players because of financial fair play regulations.

It was a disappointing start for Celta after a season in which it finished in the European places.

On Friday, Rayo Vallecano won at Girona 3-1 and Villarreal defeated promoted Oviedo 2-0.