Roberto De Zerbi revealed his regrets on Italian television after Brighton were swept aside 4-0 in the Europa League on Thursday night.

"It is a rude awakening, but Roma were far too good for us," the Italian said after the match.

The Brighton tactician was making a return to his homeland, but it was not a happy visit to the Stadio Olimpico, as his team lost the first leg of the Europa League Round of 16 by a 4-0 scoreline.

Paulo Dybala, Romelu Lukaku, Gianluca Mancini and Bryan Cristante sealed the rout, making it a huge task to turn this around next Thursday in England.

"We did our best in terms of effort, but in terms of football quality it was 20-25-30 per cent of our potential," De Zerbi told Sky Sport Italia.

"It was in a certain sense to be expected, because we are not accustomed to playing these games, whereas Roma are and we saw a difference in pace, calm, self-belief and experience of this knockout fixture.

"Roma were far too good for us tonight, considering what we did."

This is the first time Brighton and Hove Albion have ever played in UEFA competition and they topped their group to reach the Round of 16, but injuries are taking their toll in recent weeks.

"The real problem is that we struggle to play three games a week with 15-16 players available. Finding the energy to play 90 minutes in the Premier League, then another 90 in the Europa League. If you don't have the ability to rotate the squad, you are running on empty," explained De Zerbi.

 "It is a rude awakening, we were all hoping for a different match, a different result and also a different quality of football. The thing that irritates us the most is that we were unable to express ourselves."

Joao Pedro, Kaoru Mitoma, Solly March, James Milner and Jack Hinshelwood were all unavailable for the trip to Rome.