Roma head coach urges consistency in the title race and reflects on his formative years at Juventus ahead of Sunday’s showdown
Ahead of the highly anticipated clash between Roma and Juventus, Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini addressed the media with a clear message: balance, consistency, and resilience will define the final stretch of the Serie A season.
“The Juventus is a great team and these types of games very often, as has happened recently, travel on the edge of balance, so sometimes it’s truly the imperceptible things that end up shifting the result,” Gasperini said.
Reflecting on the reverse fixture earlier this season, he added: “In the first leg we were a bit patched up, especially in defense, but the first leg was a good performance from us. Juventus also played an excellent game, in the end.”
With 12 matches remaining, Gasperini stressed that continuity is now crucial in the Scudetto and European race.
“Now we’re entering a phase where it’s important to provide continuity. Whoever manages to put together winning streaks in this period pulls away, creates separation in the standings — that’s what we have to try to do.”
“Four points are significant for the path Roma has taken, but they are not decisive with 12 matchdays left for any kind of outcome.”
Gasperini believes the title race will go down to the wire.
“It will be a competition decided much later on. You have to get results to stay in it, but as I’ve already said other times, this is a championship we hope to resolve in the final Sundays, because that means you’re still in it. But it’s unthinkable that any team can take off and decide the championship very early.”
“We have to stay in everything. Three months is a long time. We have to try to be competitive in the league, try to achieve the maximum in the league at this moment, and try to stay in the Europa League.”
Looking ahead, Gasperini acknowledged the congested schedule and the unpredictability of squad availability.
“Now, when we go to play Bologna, it’s a matter of this final week. After that, we enter all the important matches — decisive for the Europa League. In the league you have to stay in it and position yourself in the best possible way, but there are variables. Maybe from one week to the next you think you’re getting players back and instead you lose them. There are suspensions, so you really have to think game by game at this moment to try to get the maximum from every match.”
The Roma boss also took a moment to reflect on his deep connection with Juventus, where he spent two decades working in the youth sector.
“For me Juventus was an incredible training ground, because it’s clear that I spent ten years there as a youngster in the youth sector and then as a coach in the youth sector — almost twenty years overall — so it was certainly a great education for me, both personally but above all from a football perspective, because beyond everything it was a club where football was done very well.”
On the broader race at the top, Gasperini suggested that the points threshold for success may be particularly high this season.
“Generally you always have to go beyond 70 points — 72, 73 — the feeling this year could even be more.”
He also offered a brief evaluation of Teun Koopmeiners, recalling his time at Atalanta.
“I can say that Kovačić is a strong player. Maybe he didn’t manage to maintain the initial expectations, but in that Atalanta he was a very strong player.”
As Roma prepare for one of the defining fixtures of their season, Gasperini’s message is clear: margins are thin, the race is long, and consistency — not flashes — will determine who remains standing in May.
