AS Roma coach Eusebio di Francesco felt they paid for their errors in defeat to Real Madrid.

The Giallorossi were beaten 3-0 at the Bernabeu in their Champions League opener.

“We suffered their quality and through balls in the first half, as they find it so easy to move the ball around and find those channels," Di Francesco told Sky Sport Italia.

“It's a pity that we had chances to hurt them on the counter, but we made far too many mistakes and our final ball was never right. We knew that they'd leave us spaces and we didn't make the most of them.

“I think more than being timid, we had too little quality. You can't give the ball away to a side like Real Madrid, when it's so hard to get it off them.

“It's about making the right choices. We must know when to rush the forward move, when to hold on to it. When they got in those positions, they'd at the very least hit the target, whereas we just threw it away.

“I have to look at some positives, as we were taking on a team that is far superior to us and we knew that. We have to give these players strength now and they achieved great things last season, so it's natural we expect more of them now."

Di Francesco surprised everyone by fielding Nicolò Zaniolo, the 19-year-old midfielder who has never even played in Serie A.

“I see quality in this player, otherwise I'm not going to go mad and just throw him in for a Champions League game. He's got work to do, but he played well considering and I think there's no better game to blood a young player than this."