A disaster all along the line. Roma lose the most important match of the season, the one that could launch them on the most prestigious stage in Europe, and they do it in the worst way. The expulsions of De Rossi and Emerson confirm that maturity is still unknown on the Giallorossi bank of the Tiber: Porto, who arrived in the capital as an underdog, thanked them and took the Champions League group stage.
“We lost an important match and this creates difficulties for us in recreating order – Luciano Spalletti's analysis -. It's a difficult result to digest, both for how it turned out and for all the effort spent last season. Now there will be a very hard period, we will have to cover our noses, ears and eyes and get back on the right path ".
Frank phrases those of the Giallorossi coach, on the other hand, belittling the extent of this failure would make no sense. Getting into the Champions League was essential, full stop. However, it is clear that the season has just begun and that satisfactions are still possible, provided we manage to reset the lead of the group. Right here are the biggest hesitations: Roma, for the umpteenth time, have shown that they suffer a lot from the pressure, so much so that they lose their heads and throw everything upside down without almost realizing it.
Down by a goal after just 8' (Felipe did well to burn Juan Jesus), the Giallorossi were nervous and awkward, so much so that the only goal of the first half came in the 37th minute through Salah. Two minutes later, however, the disaster: De Rossi's entrance on Maxi Pereira and sacrosanct expulsion by the referee Marciniak. At a disadvantage and with one man down, Spalletti decided to insert Emerson to rebalance the defensive set-up.
Logical choice at a tactical level but it turned out to be wrong: in the 51st minute the Brazilian made another wicked attempt, this time on Otavio, inducing the match director to draw the second red card of the match. Roma then tried to put it on their hearts but after Perotti's very occasional (58') they ran out of gas. And so Porto, good at managing the game above all from a mental point of view, closed every conversation first with Layun (72', madness by Szczesny) and then with Corona (75').
Thus the curse of the Champions League preliminaries continues: in the last 7 years only the Milan of the last Allegri (2013) has managed to overcome them, in the face of the eliminations of Sampdoria, Udinese (2 times), Naples, Lazio and, indeed, Rome. Worrying data, even more so if we consider that the teams in question then experienced very difficult seasons, in some cases disastrous. Spalletti knows it well, that's why he wanted to shake his eyes since the post-match conference. The knockout is tough but the potential to get up is all there.
The reflection of Rome's defeat in Piazza Affari is taken for granted, where the title of the Giallorossi company came to lose up to 11 percent this morning.
