Rudi Garcia: Roma victory down to tactical change

Empoli barely had time to recover from going a goal down before it found itself two goals behind when De Rossi sent Pjanic’s corner across into the far side of the net with a glancing header.

“He is not the Castan we all knew, we’re waiting for him to return, but he accepted that he wasn’t ready to start in defence yet and was perfectly alright with me taking that role in his absence”.

De Rossi added: “It’s an important win for us because Empoli are a tough side, they’re well organised and solid in midfield”.

Torino hosted AC Milan and were expected to claim their first win over the visitors since 2001.

“It’s the ideal night, especially to score a goal, which doesn’t happen to me very often”, he told Sky Sport Italia.

But despite Carlos Bacca putting the visitors ahead in the 63rd minute, Daniele Baselli pounced to level 10 minutes later for Torino.

“It’s a shame we conceded that goal because it made me rethink the third substitution I wanted to make”, he said. We are a side that never gives up.

They’re now in second place, one point behind early leaders Fiorentina.

Rossoneri coach Sinisa Mihajlovic claims he has the full support of club owner Silvio Berlusconi, with whom he has held crisis talks of late. It’s like we’d lost our composure. “He is rediscovering his fitness and starting to play without fear again”.

“We are the first ones to feel disappointed, but we just have to keep on working hard and trying to get better… We’ll go to Leverkusen to win”, he said.

Two set pieces in three second-half minutes undid Empoli as Miralem Pjanic scored with a free kick before sending in a corner for De Rossi to double Roma’s lead.Buchel did pull a goal back for Empoli six minutes later, the on-loan Juventus midfielder beating Wojciech Szczesny with an angled drive from the edge of the box, but Roma had done enough. Now we can sit back and see what the others do.