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AS Roma host Lazio in the Rome derby this weekend and are out for revenge after their disappointing recent record against their rivals, manager Daniele De Rossi said on Friday.
The last six meetings between the two sides have resulted in only one win for Roma, but it could be time for a fresh start after all of those games had pitted Jose Mourinho against Maurizio Sarri.
On Saturday, it will be De Rossi, who replaced Mourinho in January, facing Igor Tudor, the new man at Lazio after Sarri resigned in March.
“We don’t have a positive past in recent derbies,” De Rossi told a press conference.
“There is a desire for revenge, but without going any further. There’s a football game to prepare for and we have to stay clear-headed.”
Keeping a clear head had proven to be difficult for Mourinho, and close to the end of his Roma reign he was sent off twice in four days, the second coming in a Coppa Italia loss to Lazio.
De Rossi complained about inconsistency in refereeing decisions after Roma’s 0-0 draw at Lecce on Monday but feels he is a calmer manager than others.
“At Lecce we were penalised, sometimes it’s right to talk about it, other times it’s not because you want to focus on other things,” De Rossi said.
“I think I’m a manager who can have a healthy discussion, not protesting like others, if one of my players kicks the ball out I don’t say that it’s our throw-in.”
De Rossi, born in the Italian capital, may be experiencing his first derby as a manager, but as a player he made more than 600 appearances for the club and is no stranger to the emotions that surround the game.
“It changes, over the years I had started to manage it. Today, I feel calm,” he said.
“I played a lot of them, I remember with pleasure the fact that I suffered it in the first years, I entered the field tense, then I started to play them, for better or worse, the first ones I didn’t really play.”
Roma are fifth in the Serie A standings on 52 points with Lazio six points behind in seventh.
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