Barusso gets Spalletti praise

Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has praised midfielder Ahmed Apimah Barusso after the Ghanaian made his first ever start in the Uefa Champions League.

Spalletti used his young players as they played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with visiting Manchester United during Wednesday night's game.

Both Spalletti and Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, rung the changes to their usual starting line-ups in a bid to keep important players fresh for the forthcoming weekend league action.

Among the Roma starting line-up were debutant Portuguese left-back Antunes and players such as Barusso and Italian forward Mauro Esposito, neither of whom have played much this season.

Spaletti was full of praise for his youngsters who made their impressive starts.

"In the first half the players also did very well but we had many debutants here in the Stadio Olympico and in the Champions League," Spaletti said.

"We could see there was some kind of discomfort on the senior players on the bench when you consider that, the first half was also very good.

"All of them played very well. As I said before it was very emotional for them but they did really well."

But by the time the game finished, Roma were virtually at full-strength as Barusso made way for Guily in with 20 minutes remaining.