Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has defended his players after Sunday's friendly humiliation against Borussia Dortmund.

Roma were thrashed 4-0 and Spalletti remarked yesterday: "Of course we could have done better, there's no doubt about that, but this defeat will help us get our ideas straight.

"I'm still convinced that it's better to play decent sides from the start of pre-season, but we only started training a week ago so we're still fighting rustiness. They have been working since the start of July so they are much further along than us."