Monchi apologises to Roma fans after 7-1 humilation

Monchi apologised profusely to Roma supporters after a 7-1 Coppa Italia quarter-final defeat to Fiorentina. “It’s the most painful moment of my career.”

The Giallorossi were already 4-1 down when Edin Dzeko was sent off for dissent, although some footage suggests he might even have spat at the referee.

“It’s perhaps the most difficult and painful moment of my career. I’ve never seen a defeat like that,” Monchi told Roma TV.

“This is a day where we can only apologise to all the Roma fans, who were in Florence and at home, because we can just say sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

“We’ll try to analyse it, but right now we can only say sorry.”

The director of sport was asked if there were any signs that such a capitulation was coming.

“I don’t think any of the players wanted to do badly. Sometimes it all just goes wrong. I was in the locker room before the game and the lads were fired up, knew it was an important match.

“I think over the last five or six games, leaving out the second half in Bergamo, we had been doing very well. This was a big setback.

“Nobody is happy today, nobody is relaxed. We’re going to go away for a few days in a training retreat to stay together and focus. When you go into a situation like this, the only way out of it is to stay together. It’s not an issue of punishment, because the players could not feel more punished than they were on the pitch today.”