Ranieri: We will fight until the end

(GSM) – Roma boss Claudio Ranieri has assured the fans his side will do anything to win the first Scudetto since 2001.

The Giallorossi relinquished their lead at the top of Serie A on Sunday falling two points behind Internazionale after a 2-1 defeat at home to Sampdoria.

Speaking to Il Corriere dello Sport, Ranieri was asked how his players have reacted in training.

“They are disappointed,” he said. “But I reminded them that they have had an excellent season.

“When I arrived here I asked for one thing: that they always fight until the end. The fruit of this philosophy is 24 consecutive useful results, something quite extraordinary.

“The team has never lost this characteristic. I am telling them that now. They didn’t even ‘lose’ against Panathinaikos when we were knocked out of the Europa League.

“We got 10 minutes wrong in the first leg and 10 minutes wrong in the second against the Greeks, but even then we fought until the end and we did the same against Sampdoria.

“We were 2-1 down and there was 30 seconds left, and we tried to attack again. This is a strong signal that we want to give to our fans.

“They know that we will fight until the end, that we will finish the season with our conscience in place, convinced of having given everything until the end.

“We won’t have any regrets. This is football. We played a poor first half against Lazio, then we improved and God winked and gave us a hand.

“We played a great first half against Samp, we didn’t manage to close the game, missing several goalscoring opportunities. But we could have scored again in the second half.

“We won’t give up. We owe it to these wonderful fans. Just think, the game had been finished for 10 minutes and they were still applauding us.

“They waved us off warmly when we left the stadium on the bus. Our fans must be calm. Roma will fight until the end,” he concluded.