Valverde: Roma defeat is down to me

Ernesto Valverde said he takes responsibiltiy for Barcelona’s Champions League exit at the hands of Roma.

The Catalan giants had looked set for the semi-finals after a 4-1 win at the Camp Nou but went down 3-0 in the second leg and went out on away goals.

“We had no response, everything went for them and for us we struggled to build our play,” he said.

”I am responsible absolutely, I am the visible head of the team and it was down to me.

”With their pressure it forced us to knock balls long, we became disjointed and we were not able to win the second ball.

”When you lose and the opposition are better then the analysis is often extreme. They (Roma) were strong, physical and we had a lot of problems.”

Source | Marca

Barcelona still remain on course to win La Liga and are in the final of the Copa del Rey but this is a tough defeat to take, particularly after winning the first leg by a healthy margin.

There will be plenty of frustration with Valverde too, despite being pretty battered by Roma he failed to make changes until the closing stages, by which time it was simply too late.