Dzeko: ‘Roma were completely dazed by Napoli’s fighting spirit’

Edin Dzeko has admitted that AS Roma ‘weren’t in usual selves’ during the 4-0 defeat to Napoli. ‘We have to wake up as soon as possible.’

The Giallorossi had started quite brightly at the Stadio San Paolo, but after Lorenzo Insigne’s free kick, they seemed to crumble.

Fabian Ruiz, Dries Mertens and Matteo Politano rounded out the result in the second half.

“It certainly wasn’t our night,” Dzeko told Sky Sport Italia. “We did badly, we know that, and have to forget about this evening as soon as we can.

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“We’d done pretty well this season, except for Verona, and we expected more, but we just weren’t our usual selves. You could tell from the sheer number of misplaced passes and errors.

“Now we’ve got to wake up as soon as possible. There’s a game every three to four days, we have to get back to our old selves straight away.”

Dzeko was asked if the fact they have so far failed to beat any of the big clubs – drawing with Juventus and Milan, losing heavily to Napoli – suggests Roma haven’t stepped up a level yet.

“If we look at it like that… People always tell us that we don’t beat the big clubs, but if you look at it, Milan beat everyone except Roma. We deserved more than a point against Juventus, while tonight Napoli really earned the result.

“It’s a long campaign, we hope to improve in the other big games.”