AS Roma earned a precious 1-1 away draw against Fiorentina in the Europa League round of 16 but coach Rudi Garcia was not happy with the result as he believes that his side deserved a win against Viola.
Roma played against Fiorentina in an all-Italian derby in the Europa League at Stadio Artemi Franchi. Josip Ilicic gave Fiorentina a 17th-minute first-leg lead but Seydou Keita headed home an equaliser in the 77th minute to keep the hopes of Roma alive.
AS Roma coach Rudi Garcia looked disappointed after the result and said that they should have won the game.
“We deserved to win. We had lots of chances to win the match,” said Rudi Garcia.
“We were up against it in the first 20 minutes, but then we turned a corner and stopped giving it away in midfield. We were ambitious and got a goal, which is always important when you’re playing away in a European knock-out tie.
“We shouldn’t just play to get through on away goals in the second leg – we have to try and win the game. In the last 70 minutes tonight it was the same Roma side I saw against Juve last Monday and Feyenoord in the Europa League last 32.
“We showed character and personality. We built the play well and showed we could stretch Fiorentina.
“It was a good performance from us this evening and I think we could have got the victory.”
Meanwhile, Fiorentina dominated the proceedings in the majority part of the game and their midfielder Milan Badelj said afterwards that his side was the worthy winner of this tie.
“We played a great game after the 4-0 defeat to Lazio, which was really bad,” Badelj said.
a However, we can’t say that we’re happy with 1-1. We started well and were in control at 1-0. We made a mistake to give away the penalty as we left too much space for them in behind. It’s difficult for the referee but, for me, he got it wrong on two or three occasions. But it’s difficult for him to see everything. So I don’t want to speak about him too much.”