Diego Llorente was the man of the moment for AS Roma on Sunday as his gorgeous strike broke Fiorentina hearts and secured a 2-2 draw – and Daniele De Rossi has praised the Leeds United man.
Llorente, 30, was handed a start back in the Roma side after missing the last two Serie A matches. De Rossi has made a wonderful start to life as Roma boss, coming into the game with seven wins from 10.
But Fiorentina meant business. Luca Ranieri gave his side the lead, and Rolando Mandragora restored the advantage after Houssem Aouar’s equaliser. Cristian Biraghi then missed a penalty on 80 minutes.
Roma, and Llorente, capitalised. In his 44th outing for Roma, he half-volleyed a stunning strike into the top corner – a goal likened to that of Marco van Basten. A truly superb moment for the Leeds defender.
A player that is expected to follow Robin Koch and Luis Sinisterra in leaving on loan, before striking a permanent exit – with a £4m deal on the cards. De Rossi heaped praise on him, on Roma’s website.
“Diego is a quality player – he’s almost wasted as a defender. He’s got tremendous ability with his feet and is great at reading the game. He’s already shown in his career that he can score such goals.
“Evan [Ndicka] found him with a great header but he still had a lot of work to do, and he did wonderfully It’s a wonderful effort, of course it had been worked on in training! It was really beautiful,” De Rossi said.
Daniele De Rossi heaps praise on Leeds loanee Diego Llorente
A manager clearly delighted with his player. If a permanent deal was in any doubt beforehand, which it wasn’t, it certainly is not now. What a goal from a player that is capable of playing at the very top level.
But unfortunately, and especially at Leeds, has not been able to consistently do it over a long period of time. Whether that be a drop in form, or injuries preventing Llorente from truly reaching the top tier.
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