Joel Pohjanpolo struck two penalties on the night, his second an 86th minute winner.
Afterwards, Di Francesco was keen to praise midfielder Gaetano Oristanio's performance.
What is the value of this victory? There was a hand with Oristanio...
"When we guess them right we become good, maybe we make the wrong initial choices. Oristanio was coming from a season where he had not played with this continuity, so I also wanted to try Yeboah, who was penalized by the fact that they had 48 more hours to recover and you could see it in their freshness. I changed something, I switched to 3-5-2, we attacked the depth better. We had been missing him, they are a structured team and can suffer from this aspect."
What value does it have?
"It's important, but I didn't want to go back too much. We want people who fight and this team has shown that they want to fight for this shirt."
The competitive ferocity was impressive.
"When I was a player I played in cups. I knew that when you played in cups the start could be very difficult. Then we changed something and we entered the field with a different spirit."
You were called to Venice also to enhance the many young players. What do you think of Oristanio's growth? He seems like a different player compared to August.
"I followed him in Cagliari and what I always saw was talent. He is a great worker and by working he is growing and must continue to do so. He has talent, he must be preserved and taken in the right direction, he has great value, I had to change my thoughts a bit, because in football there are two phases. Gaetano is improving especially in continuity during the game, for me he has potential."