Leeds United man with uncertain future hailed as 'tremendous' following pivotal moment

Roma manager Daniele De Rossi could be heard waxing lyrical about Diego Llorente's 'tremendous' ability following his remarkable goal on Sunday night. The Leeds United loanee was the hero for Roma as he found the back of the net in the fifth minute of added time to rescue a point for De Rossi's side, who drew 2-2 against Fiorentina in Serie A.

Latching onto an Evan Ndicka nod down, Llorente took his time before drilling the bouncing ball into the top corner of Pietro Terracciano's net from a tight angle. The draw was enough to keep Roma within just three points of Bologna, who currently occupy the final Champions League qualification spot in the Serie A league table.

Roma are fifth at present, with De Rossi, who took over from Jose Mourinho in January, winning six and losing one of his first eight league games in charge. Llorente will hope to keep his place in the side this week as the Italian outfit travel to face Brighton and Hove Albion in the second leg of their Europa League knockout clash, having beaten the Seagulls 4-0 last week.

De Rossi will have already turned his focus to that fixture, but in the aftermath of Sunday's contest in Florence, he took the time to sing the Spaniard's praises.

“Diego is a quality player – he’s almost wasted as a defender”, De Rossi said, as per Roma’s official website. “He’s got tremendous ability with his feet and is great at reading the game.

“He’s already shown previously in his career that he can score such goals.

“Evan found him with a great header but he still had a lot of work to do, and he did wonderfully to finish the move off. It’s a wonderful effort, and of course it had been worked on in training! It was really beautiful."

As it stands, Llorente is due to return to Leeds following the expiration of his latest loan with Roma, but he is expected to be on the move once more.