De Martino's debut joy
Roma youngster Raffaele De Martino was thrilled with his debut for the club.
EXCLUSIVERoma youngster Raffaele De Martino was thrilled with his debut for the club despite the disappointing draw against Bayer Leverkusen.
The 18-year-old was selected from the Roma youth team to replace injured Simone Perrotta.
Therefore, his first appearance for the club was in the UEFA Champions League before he had even played in Serie A.
"Coach Luigi Delneri told me I would play on Tuesday morning," De Martino told skysports.com.
"I was a bit nervous because there were so many hours to wait, but also extremely happy."
The European match was played in an empty Stadio Olimpico following a Uefa decision to ban supporters at the ground.
The match was extremely critical for Roma who now have no chance of qualifying from the group stage of the Champions League but remain hopeful that they can obtain a place in the Uefa Cup.
"It was a strange atmosphere for such an important match," De Martino added.
"But it helped me a lot to have Alberto Aquilani beside me in the centre of midfield as we covered that position for so many matches at youth level.
"It is our duty to do all we can in the last two fixtures.
"We must believe that we can go on in Europe and we also owe it to our supporters."
