Julen Lopetegui will embark on his first Champions League campaign in charge of Real Madrid when Roma arrive at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday and Eusebio Di Francesco has made clear that Los Blancos will continue to win games, even without Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo will make his own Champions League debut for Juventus on the same evening when the Italian side face Valencia, yet life without the Portuguese forward begins in earnest for the European champions on Wednesday.
“Real Madrid will continue to win a lot, they aren’t known as Real Ronaldo,” Di Francesco explained in his pre-match press conference.
“In Italy, as in Spain, judgements are made too quickly and Marco Asensio is a player I like very much, he’s the future of Real Madrid.
“He can be very good for the team and he expresses himself in matches at a very high level.”
Roma’s achievement in reaching the semi-final of the 2017/18 edition of the tournament was a major boost for the club, and one which hasn’t been forgotten despite the Giallorossi’s poor start to their domestic campaign this term.
“Nobody would have asked us last year whether we thought we could achieve what we did,” he admitted.
“After what has been done, the expectations increase accordingly.
“We have to improve our performance as a result, as we did something extraordinary and that’s what we’re trying to repeat.”
One of the major issues for the Italian side in 2017/18 were defensive frailties that weren’t necessarily helped by playing an unnaturally high defensive line, and this still remains a problem that bothers the former Sassuolo coach.
“The defensive aspect is one of my concerns,” he confirmed.
“We’re working to put in a better performance, we need to be more solid.
“Then we can focus on the attacking part of the game, but our priority at the moment is to solve the problems we’re having at the back.”
The match on Wednesday evening kicks off at 21:00 CEST.