It could have been worse, but also much better. Roma avoid the loose cannon of Manchester City and find Porto as opponents in the Champions League preliminaries. The Portuguese are never an easy customer, especially at home, where they can count on the bedlam of the Estádio do Dragão. It would have been preferable to meet one of the other three possible opponents – Villarreal, Ajax or Borussia Mönchengladbach – but the Giallorossi will have to settle for it: they weren't among the top seeds and they knew right from the start that they couldn't count too much on good luck in Nyon. Having dribbled past Pep Guardiola's battleship is already a good result.
Immediately after the draw, Roma limited themselves to an aseptic announcement on Twitter.
OFFICIAL ?? It will be there @FCPorto the opponent of#ASRoma in the preliminaries of @Championsleague ?? #UCLDraw #UCL pic.twitter.com/02SeQHgJjN
- AS Roma (@OfficialASRoma) August 5th, 2016
Porto, on the other hand, addresses the Giallorossi directly, letting them imagine what kind of welcome awaits them at do Dragão.
See you in Porto @OfficialASRoma @ChampionsLeague
- FC Porto (@FCPorto) August 5th, 2016
Here are all the other pairings:
Young Boys - Borussia Monchengladbach
Ludogorets-Viktoria Pilsen
Celtic Glasgow - Hapoel Bershewa
Israel FC Copenhagen-Apoel Nikosia
Dundalk v Legia Warsaw
Dinamo Zagreb - Red Bull Salzburg
Steaua Bucharest-Manchester City
Ajax-FK Rostow
Villarreal-Monaco.
