Roma boss Jose Mourinho has admitted that his side struggled at times during the win over Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League round of 16.
Roma defeated Vitesse 1-0 courtesy of a first-half injury strike from Sergio Oliviera to give Roma an advantage after the first leg.
However, Mourinho in an honest interview after the match admitted that his side struggled in on a difficult pitch and that Vitesse deserved more than the result they got.
"We controlled the second half, in the first half Vitesse had an undeserved result, we didn't do anything to score," Mourinho said.
"We were lucky in some situations, then in the second half, we checked. It was very difficult to play, to be confident in possession, but in the second half it went better but it was difficult ."
"When you don't have a real director, we have to try different dynamics. [Jordan] Veretout and Oliveira didn't have the chance to have possession of the ball in the first half, I don't want to say that with [Bryan] Cristante's entry it went better, it's because we played better in the second half."
"In the first half, it was difficult to miss the man for Veretout, then [Ainsley] Maitland-Niles didn't have that arrogance in jumping the line, [Rick] Karsdorp did better. In the second half, I never had the feeling of conceding a goal, while in the first half I was happy to finish 0-0 ."
With the result, Roma take a slim advantage into the second leg in Rome next week and Mourinho has pointed out where his team has to improve, especially with match-winner, Oliviera set to miss the second leg due to suspension.
"We try to build from day one, for the first time we have some stability, the only player out is [Leonardo] Spinazzola. Against Udinese there will be no [Marash] Kumbulla and [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan, Oliveira and [Gianluca] Mancini will be missing in the return. Now the team understands the moments of the match more, is more pragmatic and we are less naive, in the moment of difficulty we reacted well ."