
Banfi: Roma will need their best performance in the Champions League
Actor and Roma fan Lino Banfi has spoken about Gasperini's side ahead of their Champions League debut this season, praising the atmosphere at the club and backing the team to compete at the highest level. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Banfi described the mood at Roma: "It's wonderful, this city deserves this euphoria. It seems to me that the environment is truly unified behind this manager and this fantastic group of players that I had the chance to meet at Trigoria a few months ago. In the Champions League we will need the best Roma, we play in a hot stadium but if Roma play as they did against Atalanta they can do it. I also suggest to Gasp a bi-zone system—he knows what I mean." Roma sit top of the table after the opening three Serie A matches. Banfi, Pugliese-born but a lifelong Roman, was impressed by how Gasperini has settled into the role despite coming from the north. "Even though he's from the north he has adapted well and understood the city," Banfi explained. He recounted a visit to Trigoria where Gasperini involved him in a prank on the players: "When he saw me come out, Pellegrini was moved and Dybala hugged me saying that one day he would like to celebrate a goal shouting my catchphrase 'Porca Puttena'." Gasperini was also celebrated by the Verona squad, who threw him in the air and quoted Banfi's film line "You took me for a fool."


