Roma takes out its evening dress, ready to dirty it in the mud of a dirty and complicated match, from which it deservedly emerges as the winner against Leverkusen.
– The thin line, the one that separates the success from the (sporting) failure of a season, has become even narrower for Roma and is called the Europa League. In the championship it now appears a chimera to go back beyond sixth place, which in any case would not even give the certainty of a qualification in the second European cup. Therefore, the dream of attempting the back-to-back feat in the cups remains. Black or white, there are no more grayscales. Roma knows it and takes out its evening dress, ready to get it dirty in the mud of a dirty and complicated game, from which it deservedly emerges as the winner in the first 90′ against Bayer Leverkusen;
– Mourinho comes up with an almost obligatory 3-5-2which sees Bove and Pellegrini midfielders and the double center forward Abraham-Belotti. The startup seems to launch sinister omens: after 40 seconds Bayer could already pass, but Andrich’s right foot lacks the necessary power to pass Rui Patricio; five minutes later it was Wirtz who missed a penalty on the move. Rome, however, is reunitedquickly find the countermeasures to the exuberance in the 1vs1 of the opponents, and in the end Andrich’s will be the only shot on goal of the aspirin;
– The yellow and reds grow at a distance, almost feeding on the newfound solidity. Belotti as usual he talks to everyone and puts in an almost touching dedication, even if by now he seems more like a halfback lent to attack than a centre-forward. Spinazzola and Celikback from a not so exciting season, accompany the exuberance of Frimpong and Hincapiè to the exit without scratches. Cristante he puts all his footballing intelligence into play, succeeding in not making Smalling regret in the center of the rearguard. The rabbit out of the hat, however, is brought out by the footballer you don’t expect: Edward Boveproduct of the nursery born in 2002, which starts a great percussion from attacking midfielder and ends it by first throwing Hradecky’s rebound on Abraham into the net.
– Bove’s position, already tested against Inter, is one of the tactical keys to the match, one of the few variations that Rome grants to its rigid system. The kid has excellent insertion times and an almost natural propensity to launch on every second ball, perfect for picking up the dirty work of the two up front. To counter him, the always generous Pellegrini tends to play lower, to help the ball out and support the deus ex machina Matic in the role of breakwater. In the final, there would also be room to try to make it 2-0, but apart from a conclusion from Belotti, Roma seem to have none left and prefer to manage. Dybala and Wijnaldum, still in mid-service, enter only in the last 15′ to make the clock go faster;
– Tired, marked by injuries, not aesthetically satisfying, yet Roma remain an extremely annoying team to face, especially in a cup. There are still 90 minutes left, and we’ll need another great match to hope. But yesterday’s performance by the Giallorossi is simply a manifesto of the footballing identity that Josè Mourinho has built over these 2 years: an attentive and bad team, aimed at minimizing the risks and therefore almost reluctant to manage possession, ready to defend with a very low block and then restart and willing to wait for long moments in search of the opponent’s mistake or the joker ( read set pieces). Is it spectacular to see? Surely not, at least for champagne football lovers. But due to the specific weight of the match, and the conditions in which it arrived, it was probably the only viable way to achieve such a result. The public’s response, then, says a lot about how much this team has managed to enter into symbiosis, thanks also to nights like the one just passed.