Spalletti: Uncomfortable Roma must improve in Europe

Luciano Spalletti concedes Roma do not look comfortable playing in Europe and wants to see his players rectify that in this season’s Europa League.

Roma suffered a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Porto in the Champions League play-off round, with three of their players sent off across the two legs.

The Serie A side dropped into the Europa League as a result and Friday’s draw in Monaco saw them picked out in Group E along with Viktoria Plzen, Austria Vienna and Astra.

Spalletti wants to see Roma improve their reputation on the continent in the tournament, but is not taking his team’s opponents lightly.

“We need to improve in Europe because up until now we haven’t looked entirely comfortable,” he said to Roma TV. 

“There’s always something that prevents us from producing our best football on the European stage.

“It’s up to us to fly the Roma flag, so we definitely need to do better and show that we are up to playing in these competitions. 

“Lots of people think the Europa League doesn’t count for much but once you get to the quarter-final and semi-final stage it’s like the Champions League, with matches that are a joy to play in and win.

“I hear people talk about the draw being easy, but things will become difficult if we repeat what we showed in the last game. 

“It’s a very even group. There could have been much harder draws if we got Manchester United or Villarreal but there won’t be one team that pulls away from the rest. 

“We are the best team in the group, but I think the others will fight for it down to the wire.”