Roma coach Daniele de Rossi was calm after their 1-0 defeat at Brighton.

Roma reached the Europa League quarterfinals 4-1 on aggregate.

De Rossi said: “Achieving qualification is something worthy of praise, though the lads did most of the job in the first leg. We still needed the right attitude and character here, I saw a small step forward in that sense.

“It's true we could've done better with the ball, as Brighton are good on the ball, but not as good without it, and we should've made more of that to take the pressure off. We need to move better, create the spaces between the lines, but today we went for the long ball a bit too much. Every time we emerged from their press, we either backed off or kicked it from distance. Once you get out of the press, you have to take that moment to think and make the right choice.

“The squad was already in good physical shape when I arrived, everyone works hard in training. If you do that, then the performances will be there in Europe too. If we can be a little sharper on the ball, then we can really start to have fun, because we've got the quality.

“If we had not won the first leg 4-0, we would've had a different approach today."