"We need to look at ourselves" - Stuttgart's camp react to tough away defeat
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It just wasn't Stuttgart's night in the Eternal City.
Despite matching Roma in most departments, the hosts proved more ruthless than their German counterparts - launching themselves into the top eight of the Europa League, while Stuttgart have everything to play for in next week's final match against Young Boys.
“We need to look at ourselves,” Sebastian Hoeneß told RTL. “At the end of the day, you need to score the goals. We had the chances.”
Hoeneß couldn't have been more correct, with both Deniz Undav and Ermedin Demirovic snapping at big chances that could have drawn Die Schwaben level, before Niccolo Pisilli's second of the night sealed the deal in added time.
“We're disappointed with the result, but certainly not the performance,” added Hoeneß. “It could've been a great evening if we'd scored goals from the chances we created.”
Stuttgart avoided embarrassment from poor finishing in their recent match against Eintracht Frankfurt, but failed to win against Union Berlin last time out after missing four big chances.
Captain Atakan Karazor, speaking to UEFA, highlighted how the same issue was present once again this evening: “We've seen in the last games that we need to concentrate more when near the goal, in the last pass or the final shot.”
With Stuttgart sitting outside the top eight ahead of the final round of fixtures, they will be relying on results elsewhere to take an automatic round of 16 spot next week, should they beat Young Boys. Karazor remained adamant that VfB “need to take three points.”
“We want to win this game, and we need to make better decisions there to take the points for us.”
From the Roma side, head coach Gian Piero Gasperini told SKY that: “It turned out to be a perfect match. We managed to involve everyone against a strong team. It was a very demanding test.”
Gasperini now leads Hoeneß by four goals to nil, after his Atalanta side beat Stuttgart 2-0 in the Champions League last term.
Stuttgart now have to quickly turn their attention to an away clash with Borussia Mönchengladbach this weekend, before the final round of European league phase fixtures next Thursday.
