Mauro Esposito believes Roma could have beaten Manchester United if Daniele de Rossi had not fluffed his spotkick.

"We tried to play our game but we obviously knew that it was going to be tough," Esposito said. "We believed we could do it and after a nervous opening 15 minutes we did push them back.

"Of course De Rossi was disappointed at missing the penalty. Had he scored, the whole match would have changed, but these things happen.

"I think it was a hard-fought game against a very physical side. We needed at least two goals and we weren't able to manage it."