Di Francesco: "Roma have no special plans to stop Salah, Strootman will be out"

Roma manager Eusebio di Francesco had a press conference ahead of the Champions League semi-final second-leg game against Liverpool. Francesco has revealed that the club has no special plans to stop Mohamed Salah. How do you stop Liverpool? “We need a carbon copy of the physical and mental display we put in against Barcelona. Against Liverpool, we’ll need technical quality, physicality, the right attitude and to score as soon as we can, so our supporters can give us that extra push.” Will there be any surprises in your defensive set up? “[Mohamed] Salah was a decisive influence in the first leg, but we cannot focus our entire game plan on him. There are certain movements that we need to work on. We need focus and application to address Salah’s ability to get in behind and do better at reading certain situations. We can’t simply put three men on him, however. We need to do something special to close that three-goal gap.” How does Edin Dzeko go into the game tomorrow? “The players will be the deciding factor and that’s even more true of him. He’s one of our talismans and I hope that, as Salah was the star of the first leg, this time Dzeko can stamp his mark on a return-leg comeback. A player with his quality and ability should take responsibility and I hope Radja [Nainggolan] does the same.”

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