De Rossi says Genoa held firm until Castro's 'masterpiece' settled it
Daniele De Rossi felt his Genoa side matched Roma for an hour at the Stadio Olimpico before Santiago Castro's chipped finish turned a tight contest into a 2-0 defeat.
Roma beat Genoa 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Friday, with Santiago Castro's chipped finish and a goal from Emanuele Lulli deciding a contest that Daniele De Rossi insists was far closer than the scoreline suggests.
De Rossi, who made more appearances for Roma than anyone except Francesco Totti and later had a brief spell as the club's coach, was returning to a stadium that will never feel like a neutral away ground for him.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia after the game, he said his side had matched Roma for roughly fifty minutes before Castro's intervention changed the complexion of the match. "I think we played a balanced match for 50 minutes until that masterpiece from Castro," he said, adding that the goal "knocked the wind out of our sails" but that Genoa still stayed in the contest until the final whistle.
Castro's moment broke a tight contest
Genoa had their own chance to make a statement before Castro struck. Stephan El Shaarawy, also facing his former club at the Olimpico, hit the frame of the goal in the first half, a reminder that the visitors were not simply absorbing pressure.
The shape of the game, as De Rossi described it, hinged on territory and spacing rather than outright chances created. He explained that Genoa's work closing down space and winning individual duels in the first half had actually opened room for his own team to play into, but that something shifted after the interval. "Maybe we got a bit stretched out after the break, allowed Roma an extra second on the ball, and that can ultimately make the difference," he said.
That is a precise diagnosis of how fine margins operate in games between unevenly matched squads. A side built to defend compactly and counter can hold its structure for long stretches, but the moment spacing between lines loosens even slightly, a side with Roma's quality in the final third only needs one extra second to punish it. Castro's finish was exactly that kind of punishment.
De Rossi reads progress into another defeat
Genoa arrived in Rome having taken one point from their opening five Serie A fixtures before beating Fiorentina 2-1, a result that eased some of the pressure building around De Rossi's start to the season. He was careful to frame Friday's defeat not as a reversal of that improvement but as confirmation of it.
He said he had discussed with the club's directors how the performance against Roma gave a sense of consistency with the Fiorentina win, stressing that the continuity he saw was not in the result but in the team's "determination, attitude, and also performance." He added that Genoa would need a different gameplan for every opponent but was satisfied with his players' attitude on the night.
That distinction matters for how the campaign should be read. A coach under pressure after a poor start has limited room to claim credit from a loss, but De Rossi is pointing specifically at process over outcome: Genoa competed with a stronger side for long periods using organisation and duels won, which is the same foundation that produced the win over Fiorentina. Whether that foundation translates into points against mid-table opposition will be the real test of his project.
He also pushed back on the idea that matches against stronger opponents should be written off in advance. Roma, he pointed out, had been the stronger side last season too, yet Genoa still won that fixture. The underlying argument is that quality gaps on paper do not have to dictate outcomes if a team's approach is right, even if Friday's result did not go his way.
Wiafe handed his chance as Baldanzi is held back
The teenage Italy Under-19 international Samuel Wiafe made his first Serie A start in the match, a notable step given his status at the club only months earlier. Tommaso Baldanzi, on loan at Genoa from Roma, did not feature against his parent club.
De Rossi explained that Baldanzi had felt a twinge in training on both the day before and the day of the match, and while he was not seriously injured, the club chose not to risk him. He had been expected to come on from the bench but was withheld because of the adductor concern, with De Rossi saying the hope is he will be available for the next fixture.
On Wiafe, De Rossi was candid about how far the player's situation had shifted since the summer. He said Wiafe had been considered a youth-team player who was expected to go out on loan, but had impressed enough in training to change that plan. De Rossi described him as physically strong, talented, and comfortable on the ball, while adding that he did not want to load excessive expectation onto the teenager despite liking what he has seen.
Genoa's next task is turning performances like Friday's into results against teams closer to their own level, with Baldanzi expected to return to the squad once his adductor issue clears.