Roma sporting director Walter Sabatini has admitted that the Eternal City outfit were defeated by a ‘great’ Napoli side in their 3-0 Coppa Italia second leg loss.
The Giallorossi fell to a 5-3 aggregate defeat, with goals from Jose Callejon, Gonzalo Higuain and Jorginho at the Stadio San Paolo overturning a 3-2 deficit, and booking the Partenopei a place in the final against Serie A rivals Fiorentina.
“We played against a great team, but we weren’t annihilated,” Sabatini told Rai Sport after the game.
“We weren’t doing badly up to a certain point, then we started losing.
“To play against Napoli, it takes all the quality that Roma possess, and tonight we couldn’t manage it.”
The Giallorossi lost the final of the 2012-13 edition to Eternal City rivals Lazio, while Sabatini likened the crushing defeat to the Vesuviani to the 3-0 loss against Juventus in early January, which came just before a six game winning streak.
“We’ll return to Rome with the anger of having lost a game and missed out on the opportunity of a second straight Coppa Italia final at the [Stadio] Olimpico, we shall analyse what happened,” he continued.
“It’s not so different to what happened in Turin, it’ll happen again, even now and we’ll turn the page straight away.”
Italian international striker Mattia Destro made only his sixth appearance as a starter for the Lupi against Napoli, while January signing Michel Bastos made his first start for his new side.
“[Mattia] Destro? I consider him very strong, he’s been out for a while, but we know who he is and we know what he can do. He is the centre-forward of Roma, and we trust a lot in his quality,” he continued.
“[Michel] Bastos? During the course of his career, he played as a full-back, then moved up the pitch, he has many qualities, he possesses speed and technique.
“In this role, he suffers a little, but he’s adaptable.”
Follow Anthony Alborino on Twitter: @anthonyalborino
