Chivu: "Ready to fight until the very end"

“The team gave their all for the full 90 minutes and displayed a strong mindset. We were caught out on a few lost balls and struggled to deal with their rapid and intense transitions, and that cost us. Despite the challenges, the pitch and the cold, which I must say cannot be used as excuses, I can't fault my players for their attitude. What we needed was better management of specific players and quicker reactions to their counter-attacks. Now we need to regather ourselves. We have a few issues after this game that we need to address carefully, because in three days we have to play Lecce, and then we have the return leg on Tuesday. We need to assess our physical condition. Lautaro was injured, quite seriously, I might add. We don't know how long he'll be out, but it's definitely a significant loss. Other players will also have some issues that we will have to assess thoroughly tomorrow. Our plan was to put pressure on whoever had the ball. That wasn't really the problem. In the second half, we defended a little higher than in the first, but the main issue was the lost balls and failing to secure second balls in transitions, leaving us vulnerable to their intensity. They're a very strong team with skill and quality, and are used to playing on this pitch, probably a lot more than we are, but that's not an excuse. When it was 1-1, we had a crucial chance early in the second half that we could have made better use of. Straight after that, just three minutes later, we conceded two identical goals, from what we knew would be their strong suit. It's still all to play for. There's the return leg. We know that they're a team that can do damage on the counter, but we'll fight until the end and do everything we can to advance.”