Francesco Balzani
December 2, 2024 (changed at 11.45pm) – ROMA
Fourth defeat in a row, the second for Claudio Ranieri in the championship which however now sees the light of a less impossible calendar. At the end of a Roma-Atalanta game played on equal terms until the 70th minute, when De Roon broke the balance and dropped the Giallorossi to +2 from the safety zone, the coach wanted to vindicate the importance of the performance: “As long as we had the strength we countered blow for blow. We played on Thursday, came back Friday at 5am. It’s not an excuse. Atalanta had the substitutions, I had to make a virtue of necessity. At the beginning of the second half, it’s a shame that Dovbyk wasn’t able to extend the trajectory. Then at 1-0 there was Mancini’s ball. These are episodes, which if you insist and are determined you can bring to your side. You have to be proud in Europe when Atalanta does what they do, they have everything to fight for the scudetto: now they are ready to fight all the way and if things go like this it will be a good championship.”
DON’T GIVE UP
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Ranieri insists on trying to convey conviction to the team: “I’m satisfied with my players, the final applause from the crowd proves it. We are fighting, I complimented the team for how they were able to fight until the last second in a triptych of difficult matches but don’t think that easy challenges will come now. In December we will play every 4 days, and the next one will be harder than tonight’s. I don’t like players who give up, I’ve never accepted it. We have to fight until the end, like we did today. Atalanta is a machine, but we are gearing up.”
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THE SINGLES
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On the conditions of Hummels and Cristante, and not only… “They felt discomfort in their back and muscles, let’s see how they are in the morning – explained the coach -. If they had told me earlier that Hummels wanted to leave I would have made other changes. Dybala still hasn’t given me a full training session yet today he gave an excellent performance. Even Dovbyk has practically never trained, yesterday he told me that he didn’t know if he could do it or not because of the flu. What he gave me was great. You don’t know these things.”
