Juric: 'Roma paying for errors, but a lot of positive aspects'

Ivan Juric insists there were ‘a lot of positive aspects’ from the Roma performance after a 3-2 defeat to Verona, but they were damaged by defensive errors and a controversial refereeing decision.

The Giallorossi thought they had ended their crisis with a midweek 1-0 win squeezed out against Torino, but they were back to square one this evening with this 3-2 defeat at the Stadio Bentegodi.

Hellas took the lead three times and Roma managed to claw their way back twice, but were undone by Abdou Harroui’s counter-attack at the 88th minute.

The main controversy was around the second Verona goal, where Giangiacomo Magnani seemed to elbow Evan Ndicka during his header on an Ondrej Duda corner, but the referee and VAR saw no issue.

“It looks like a clear Magnani elbow that smashed Ndicka’s nose, he was down for five minutes, so it was not light contact. Fine, yet again the decision damages Roma,” Juric told Sky Sport Italia.

“I want to say that Roma played well today, but we made mistakes and paid for those errors. The referee also made errors, because that was a clear foul.”

Juric’s match analyst was sent off for dissent when complaining about that incident going into the tunnel at half-time.

Juric sees Roma glass half-fullepa11699405 AS Roma’s Matias Soule (L) celebrates after scoring the 1-1 goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match Hellas Verona vs AS Roma at Marcantonio Bentegodi stadium in Verona, Italy, 03 November 2024. EPA-EFE/Emanuele Pennnacchio

“I am sorry for the lads, because they had such intensity, good football, created chances, but we made some errors with a misplaced pass and a counter-attack at the end.”

Nicola Zalewski had already made a costly error against Inter, then his misplaced pass allowed Verona and Casper Tengstedt to open the scoring this evening.

“It is the same, we are making big mistakes, not even classic ones. Passing it straight to the opponent, it becomes difficult to win then. I just hope this moment will pass, that the players continue to believe in what we are doing,” added Juric.

Despite the poor results, the coach insists he has found the right tactical approach for this Roma side with a 3-4-2-1 formation.

“I believe this squad has this style of football in its blood and is starting to enjoy it, I saw them play really well today and start to dominate the match. We must be alert enough to realise there are some damaging errors, but also a lot of positive aspects to take from this performance.”

Considering the extreme tension around Roma throughout the season, are these howlers also caused by that added pressure?

“The 5-1 defeat at Fiorentina was a total disaster, it was shameful and had nothing in common with this performance, or the one against Torino. Some of these errors are difficult to explain, you rarely see them,” noted Juric.

“The second Verona goal was a foul, but then we created numerous scoring opportunities. Football has moments like this, we need to raise the concentration levels and avoid these huge mistakes.”

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