Prandelli on Roma's defeat to Real Madrid: the club deserved to win

Paulo Dybala's injury sustained during Roma's match against Real Madrid is being treated as potentially less severe than first feared. The Argentina forward will undergo instrumental tests today to determine the extent of the damage, with early indications suggesting a brief absence. Roma's medical staff are monitoring his condition closely alongside that of Manu Koné, who is feared to have suffered a muscular lesion. If initial impressions are confirmed, Dybala is expected to miss only the Roma-Genoa fixture scheduled for Saturday, 17 October at the Olimpico. This compounds Gasperini's attacking problems for that match, as Donyell Malen is suspended. The squad will be short two of its primary attacking reference points as Roma faces a congested calendar. The Real Madrid encounter has left several physical situations requiring monitoring. The medical team's target is to have Dybala available for Roma-Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday, 20 October, the third matchday of the Champions League League Phase. A recovery operating on such a quick timeline would be significant for Gasperini, who is managing both a dense fixture schedule and multiple injury concerns.

Rafa Benítez has analysed Roma's Champions League defeat to Real Madrid at the Olimpico, saying the Italian side was the better team but lost due to defensive errors from dead-ball situations. Benítez, a former Liverpool and Napoli manager who won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005, commented on the match as part of a wider assessment of four Italian defeats in a Champions League week. Benítez told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "Against a fortress like Real Madrid it can happen. But I must say that everything is exclusively linked to episodes in set-piece situations. Roma was superior, Real never managed to get down the flanks. The risk was in man-marking and it happened. But from an evening like that you can also keep the good things, knowing you must learn from the lapses." Roma came close to victory but were caught in a late comeback.

Roma's painful defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday—a loss made all the more difficult by a dominant first-eighty-two minutes undone by three corner-kick goals in the closing stage—has left the club facing an immediate test of character. Head coach Gian Piero Gasperini is determined to restore momentum with tomorrow's fixture against Genoa, and his willingness to address the squad and media again so soon signals his conviction that the setback must not be allowed to dampen the enthusiasm that has driven the team's progress so far this season. Gasperini's insistence on dialogue reflects his awareness of the danger posed by such reversals. The coach appears conscious of the parallel to Roma's collapse against Juventus last season, when the team surrendered a 3–1 lead to draw 3–3 in the final moments. A single match lost, no matter how bitterly, cannot erase the quality Roma displayed for the vast majority of Wednesday's contest or the genuine progress being made both in European competition and the domestic league. The squad and technical staff have built something of substance; a late reversal does not undo that work. Gasperini believes a clear restatement of purpose is essential to prevent the mood from fracturing. Among the consolations are individual performances worth preserving in memory. Donyell Malen continues to prove himself a centre-forward of substance; Wesley delivered an outstanding display; Matías Soulé, Rodrigo Mora—who provided an assist for Malen—and Marten de Roon all merited praise. Pierluigi Gollini, Leonardo Balerdi and Nahuel Molina were among those who made individual errors in the closing moments, but such analysis cannot overshadow eight-five minutes of superior football. For tomorrow's match against Genoa, managed by Claudio Ranieri, Gasperini will have only seventeen outfield players available. Absent through injury or other reasons will be Mile Svilar, Bryan Cristante, Manu Koné, Paulo Dybala and Malen—the spine of the squad. The fixture may yet vindicate the manager's stated wish for a left-sided attacker of right-foot preference and a left-sided winger; the club may now understand that such requests were not whim but necessity.