Federico Fazio admitted that Roma should have seen off Sassuolo sooner, as they paid the price in a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday.

The Giallorossi's early advantage was cancelled out late in the second half - while either side of the visitors' equaliser the hosts saw goals eventually disallowed after the referee consulted with VAR.

And Fazio, while pointing out that Roma had successfully won a number of close matches in similar situations already this season, acknowledged that they had slipped up.

"Today was a game that we should have seen off sooner, we knew that it was always at risk," Fazio said.

"We have won a lot of games like that recently, but not today. Now we must work even harder."

The Argentine defender waved away suggestions about the potential reasons behind the slip-up.

"There are a lot of judgements we can all make," Fazio said. "We need to bounce back, be aware of the situation and work even harder to overcome this difficult spell. It's all in hands, there are a lot of games still to play.

"We need to work on every aspect. After the defeat against Napoli we were nine points behind them with a game in hand. Now, despite dropping a few points we have learned something and must bounce back again. We must continue to work hard. We look forward to the next challenge when we win and even more so when we lose."