This article is the fourth part of a five part series. Read part one here, part two here and part three here.
It’s Sunday August 30, 2015, the second weekend of the Serie A season, and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico is ready to erupt.
As a looping Iago Falque cross begins its descent, Bosnian striker Eden Dzeko has a quick glance over his left shoulder before wrapping his arms around Giorgio Chiellini – Juventus’ warrior-like defender. Having engineered himself a stable position – and restricted the movement (illegally perhaps) of Chiellini – Dzeko crashes a header beyond the desperate grasp of Gianluigi Buffon to put Roma 2-0 up against champions Juventus. Dzeko’s compatriot Miralem Pjanic had fired the Giallorossi ahead with a sublime free kick earlier in the game. Paolo Dybala pulled a goal back for the Old Lady in the closing minutes and it took a superb injury-time save from Roma goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny – who had signed for the Giallorossi on a season-long loan from Arsenal in the summer – to deny Leonardo Bonucci, previously the scourge of Roma – an equaliser.
The full-time whistle signalled Roma’s first win of the campaign – they drew at Verona in week one – and a second defeat in two games for Juve. Following two second place finishes behind Juventus in manager Rudi Garcia’s first two seasons in charge at Roma, was the time now set for a changing of the guard?
The arrival of powerful striker Dzeko, who had been left frustrated by a lack of first team opportunities at Manchester City, and exciting Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah was a signal of Roma’s intent. However, Roma fans’ joy at the signing of Salah was matched by the fury of the Fiorentina support. In February 2015, Fiorentina had agreed an 18-month loan with Chelsea for Salah – or so they thought. Following an impressive end to the campaign, Fiorentina activated an option to make the Egyptian’s loan move permanent. However, learning of interest from Roma, Salah declined to return to Florence and, instead, signed a loan deal with the Giallorossi. Incensed with the turn of events, Fiorentina filed a complaint to FIFA, claiming that Chelsea were in breach of contract by allowing Salah’s loan move to Roma to take place. But the Court of Arbitration for Sport found no wrongdoing had taken place.
As had been the case in each of Garcia’s two seasons at Roma so far, there were high hopes of a Scudetto push in the early stages of the 2015/16 campaign. Though Sampdoria had beaten Roma 2-1 in week five, Garcia’s side responded with a run of five consecutive league wins and led the table after 10 matches.
The early optimism soon dissipated as the Giallorossi’s season began to unravel in the winter months. A series of league draws, and a Coppa Italia defeat to Serie B side Spezia, left Garcia in a precarious position at Christmas.
Qualifying from their Champions League group brought some relief for Roma, but progress was far from convincing. Drawn against holders Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen and Bate Borisov, the Giallorossi’s sole victory in the group – a 3-2 win against Leverkusen in game week four – was enough to see Roma sneak through to the last 16 in second place ahead of the German side.
For Garcia and Roma, the New Year, and the second half of the league campaign, began with a 3-3 draw away to Chievo on 6 January. Three days later, the Frenchman led the Giallorossi out for what would prove to be the final time as AC Milan visited the Olimpico. German defender Antonio Rudiger’s fourth minute goal – his first in Serie A – got Garcia’s men off to a flying start. The Giallorossi had chances to increase their lead during the first half – Rudiger very nearly added a second goal but was thwarted by Milan’s teenage goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. The visitors made Roma pay with an equaliser shortly after the half-time break, and the Rossoneri could, and perhaps should, have won the game were it not for some wasteful finishing. As the final whistle blew, the chorus of boos ringing across the Olimpico clearly had an impact on President James Pallotta and the Roma hierarchy as, four days later, Garcia had been sacked.
To focus on the malaise that set in at Roma during Garcia’s final few weeks in charge would be a harsh assessment of the Frenchman’s time at the club. The first two-and-a-half seasons had provided some of the finest attacking football Roma fans had witnessed in years, and, particularly in his first 12 months at the helm, Garcia’s side had taken the Scudetto fight to a rampant Juventus for almost the full campaign. The explosive impact of players such as Gervinho, Radja Nainggolan and Miralem Pjanic – who excelled under Garcia’s tutelage – provided the Roma faithful with a host of magical memories. However, the ongoing hunt for silverware remained.
Familiar face returns, but important relationship breaks down
In recent seasons, Roma had adopted an element of risk-taking when it came to managerial appointments. However, to replace Garcia, Pallotta opted for a trusted solution. The return of a familiar face to the Roma dugout promised much excitement for Giallorossi supporters, but, as it transpired, the club’s greatest-ever player would be left largely in the shadows as the curtain came down on his career.
On paper, the decision to bring back Luciano Spalletti – who had guided Roma to their most recent trophy, the Coppa Italia in 2008 – was a sound choice. In 19 league games, Spalletti’s side won 14, including a 4-1 derby victory over Lazio and triumphs against Napoli, Fiorentina and AC Milan, drew four and lost only once, a 1-0 defeat away to champions Juventus, who would go on to win their fifth consecutive Scudetto. Roma were fifth in the league when Spalletti took charge but jumped to third following a run of eight consecutive league victories, a position they held until the end of the season (earning the Giallorossi a play-off spot for the following season’s Champions League.) A 4-0 aggregate defeat to Real Madrid in the last 16 of the 2015/16 Champions League was disappointing, but Spalletti’s remit was to arrest Roma’s worrying league form, which he managed with no little flair. The fact that Spalletti’s return was not well received by large sections of the Giallorossi support goes right to the very essence of Roma and, to a large extent, Italian football in general.
The role of the Bandiera
The role of the bandiera (flagbearer) is much revered in Italian football; the bandiera is more than just a star player. He or she is the fans’ representative on the pitch. The club talisman is most likely to be an extremely talented player but also somebody who embodies the club’s traditions and beliefs. The bandiera – often a player who has played for the same club their entire career – will be at the forefront of a club’s successes, but they’ll also feel the pain, and pressure, more than any other during stormier waters. Put simply, the title of ‘bandiera’ was made for Francesco Totti at Roma.
During Spalletti’s first spell in charge, from 2005-2009, Totti had excelled; the Roma captain was the focal point of Spalletti’s ‘strikerless’ team, and, in 2006/07, enjoyed arguably the finest campaign of his career, winning the European Golden Boot with 32 goals (he was also Serie A’s top scorer with 26 goals the same season).
Hopes were thus high that the return of Spalletti in January 2016 would provide the platform for a now 39-year-old Totti to sign off the closing stages of his career in style. However, the Totti-Spalletti story was not to have a fairy-tale ending. With Edin Dzeko, Mo Salah and Diego Perotti, who arrived on loan from Genoa in February, at his disposal, Spalletti’s attacking options were rich (so much so that Gervinho, who had been a revelation under Garcia, was sold to Hebei China Fortune in January.) Totti’s playing time was often restricted to late cameo appearances from the bench, which many Roma fans viewed as an insult to their hero. In Spalletti’s defence, the wins and points were quickly accumulating, and Mo Salah – who would end the season as the club’s top goal scorer, was displaying the kind of form that would see Liverpool pay £36.5 million for his services in 2017.
Quizzed on his reluctance to start Totti, Spalletti said: “My objective is to get results and I make my team selections on that basis, not because of a footballer’s history.” Rumours were rife of a breakdown in the relationship between Roma’s talisman and the coach, and with the captain’s contract due to run out at the end of the season, the club didn’t appear to be in a rush to negotiate an extension. For the home match against Palermo in February, Totti was left out of the matchday squad as punishment for comments he made to Italian state broadcaster RAI on his troubles with Spalletti. Sitting in the stands for the match, Roma’s captain received vociferous backing from large sections of the Roma faithful, many of whom had specially prepared banners declaring their unwavering love and support for their bandiera. For Spalletti, despite his side securing a fifth straight league victory, there were boos.
It should perhaps come as no surprise that, in keeping with Totti’s fascinating Roma story, there was time for a ‘Roy of the Rovers’ moment before the season’s conclusion. Despite scoring a late equalising goal in a 3-3 draw against Atalanta on 17 April, Totti again found himself on the subs’ bench for the midweek visit of Torino to the Olimpico three days later. With 86 minutes on the clock, Roma – in need of a win to continue their pursuit of a Champions League spot – trailed the visitors 2-1. Yielding to the calls of the Giallorossi support, Spalletti turned to Totti to try and rescue his side. Remarkably, only 22 seconds after replacing Seydou Keita, Totti drew Roma level with his first touch, poking the ball home at the back post after Greek defender Kostas Manolas had flicked on a Pjanic free kick. However, Roma and Totti weren’t finished. Two minutes later, the Giallorossi were awarded a contentious penalty, and the stage was set for the captain’s denouement. Torino goalkeeper Daniele Padelli dived low to his right and got a hand to Totti’s spot-kick but, inevitably, the ball was always destined to land in the net. Within seconds, Totti was mobbed by his delirious teammates as the Olimpico stands exploded with joy. Footage from the evening shows grown men in tears, unable to hold back their emotions. In addition to securing a vital victory, Totti’s goals made him the oldest player in Serie A history (at 39 years, four months, and two days) to score two goals in a league match.
Roma closed the campaign with four victories, securing third place in the league and a spot in the following season’s Champions League play-off round. On June 7, after endless speculation, Totti announced that he had signed a contract extension for another year, which would see him play in his twenty-fifth consecutive season with his hometown club. He also stated that the following season would be his last as a player and that he would retire at the end of the campaign. Would Totti’s four goals in the season’s final six matches be enough to ensure a smoother relationship with Spalletti and increased playing time in his final year?
Putting fans first: creation of ‘Roma Admin’
“From day one, when we started our digital media revolution in January 2015, we decided to put fans first in everything we did – which was the strategy that the club’s then president, James Pallotta outlined from the start,” Paul Rogers reflects when asked about the origins of the club’s unique, and much envied, online presence. Rogers joined Roma as Head of Digital Media in January 2015, having previously worked at Liverpool FC for 14 years. In subsequent years, Roma – chiefly through its English Twitter account, has taken the social media world by storm, creating a unique tone of voice that speaks directly to fans and puts them at the heart of the club’s content.
Rogers explains that the biggest challenge the club faced was getting fans to understand Roma’s content. “That was a clear challenge and we addressed it by launching local-language social media accounts to remove the language barrier faced by many Roma fans who didn’t speak Italian,” he says. “We launched new websites in Arabic, English and Indonesian and then launched 14 new Twitter accounts – covering everything from Turkish to Spanish, Portuguese to Dutch, Persian to Pidgin.
“Finally, once we’d addressed the issue with our platforms and then solved the language issue, we looked at the actual content we were producing and defined the tone of voice and strategy we wanted to adopt.”
Rogers adds that the goal of Roma’s content was to be entertaining. At times, the club’s approach was highly unconventional: an image of a goat playing chess is a far cry from the corporate tone most clubs adopt when speaking to their fans. Creating deliberately poor video compilations – a tongue-in-cheek dig at the highly-polished showreels that flood social media timelines – to announce new transfers became a favourite tactic for Roma.
Most important of all, perhaps, was the creation of the ‘Roma Admin’ persona, who acted as the voice of the club’s English-speaking Twitter account. This is a character fluent in self-deprecation and with a perfect voice for interacting with fans and other clubs’ online accounts.
“Football is supposed to be fun, and we wanted to reflect that in our voice,” Rogers says. “We knew we were not the biggest club in the world or the most successful club in the world – we were never going to win every match or sign the most expensive players in the world – but we could be entertaining and produce great content that our fans want to share and, at the same time, also attract the attention of fans of other clubs. Whether it was using humour in tweets – which always generate the highest engagement numbers – or interacting with followers on a daily basis, we developed a unique tone that works well and delivered big results. One particular month, the top three biggest tweets in world football were all produced by Roma and for a number of months, Roma actually had the highest engagement rate on Twitter of any club.”
As well as raising Roma’s profile, Rogers and his digital team recognised that they could use the club’s status to highlight the work of many smaller teams around the world. They did this through a ‘Team of the Day’ campaign, which shone a light on the impact clubs were making on their communities.
“We went out of our way to uplift other clubs around the world – small clubs in far flung places – who we could help shine a light on if they were doing good things in the community or if they just needed some exposure,” Rogers explains. “We just wanted to engage in a fun and friendly way with everyone, regardless of the team they supported, because we’re all football fans at the end of the day and we wanted to move away from the toxic nature of a lot of football on social media.
“One summer we supported Nigeria in the World Cup, as Italy didn’t qualify, and we had a lot of fun with their fans, producing some great content, and the response was amazing. Nigeria, a country with 190 million people, basically adopted Roma as their team. That’s the power of great content on social media.”
Later in this series, we’ll discover how Roma used their social media channels to prove just how powerful online content can be; one campaign run by Rogers and his team, quite literally, changed lives forever.
Dzeko leads from the front
In 2016/17, Roma finished second in Serie A for the third time in four seasons. In what had already been announced as Francesco Totti’s final season as a Roma player – he would subsequently agree a deal to become the club’s technical director following his retirement – the captain was, once again, largely restricted to cameo appearances from the bench. Though Totti’s relationship with Luciano Spalletti was still far from warm, his lack of playing time had more to do with the sensational form of Edin Dzeko than a fallout with the coach. The Bosnian’s 29 goals in Serie A saw him become the first Roma player to be crowned the league’s capocannoniere since Totti earned the award in 2007. Mo Salah, also playing his final season for Roma, was the perfect foil for Dzeko, with Diego Perotti and Stephen El Shaarawy also vying for a spot in Roma’s attack.
At the other end of the pitch, the arrival of Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson from Internacional provided competition for Polish shot-stopper Wojciech Szczęsny. Alisson spent most of the season as understudy to Szczęsny but would go on to become a colossal presence for the Giallorossi in his second campaign at the club.
Despite a strong league performance – Roma climbed to second in the table after week eight and stayed there for the remainder of the season – Spalletti’s side disappointed in the cup competitions. The Champions League campaign ended before the completion of the summer holidays, a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Porto sending the Giallorossi into the Europa League. Roma subsequently topped their Europa League group and a terrific 4-0 victory away at Villareal (including a Dzeko hat-trick) in the first leg of their last 32 tie virtually sealed Roma’s place in the last 16, where they were drawn against French side Lyon. Roma’s 2-1 second leg win at the Olimpico wasn’t enough to overturn Lyon’s 4-2 victory in France the previous week and, for Spalletti and Roma, the European dream was over.
Perhaps more disappointing for Roma fans, however, was the Giallorossi’s exit from the Coppa Italia. Four years after losing the final to Lazio, Roma had the perfect opportunity to gain revenge when the two sides were drawn together in the 2016/17 semi-finals. A 2-0 win for Lazio in the first leg left Roma with a mountain to climb in the second. Despite a valiant effort – Roma won the match 3-2 – it was Lazio, once again, who earned the bragging rights over their city rivals with a 4-3 aggregate victory.
Tears in Rome as the curtain falls on the King
“Twenty-four years, 8,828 days, 291 months, 1,261 weeks, 211,871 hours, 12,712,260 minutes.” In case Francesco Totti needed reminding of how long he had played for Roma, a banner that greeted him as he made his way to the Olimpico for the final time as a player spelled it out.
Sunday 28 May 2017 was a unique day at the Stadio Olimpico. On the formalities front, Roma needed a win against Genoa to secure second place in the table ahead of Napoli – Juventus had sealed their sixth consecutive Scudetto the previous weekend – but the fans who packed the stadium to the rafters were really there to say the most emotional of farewells to their bandiera.
In keeping with Spalletti’s selection choices, Totti started the game on the bench but replaced Mo Salah 10 minutes into the second half with the score tied at 1-1. Totti and the Giallorossi secured a 3-2 win but the crowd didn’t get the final Totti goal they so craved. However, it was, perhaps, fitting that Daniele De Rossi, Roma’s Capitano Futuro and the heir to Totti’s throne, was among the goal scorers that afternoon.
Shortly after they had stopped celebrating Diego Perotti’s last-minute winner, the Roma fans and players stood as one to acclaim their king. Totti was granted a guard of honour by his team-mates before making a slow lap of honour, sharing the moment with the fans who had idolised him since his Roma debut at Brescia’s Stadio Mario Rigamonti in March 1993. A total of 786 appearances and 307 goals later, Totti was now making his farewell speech. In the stands, children, their parents, and grandparents cried together. And then it was over. Totti made his way back down the tunnel for the final time, and some further tears were shed.
The day also marked Luciano Spalletti’s final match as Roma manager – he would soon be confirmed as Inter Milan’s new coach for the following season. The thorny relationship between Totti and Spalletti – following the latter’s return to the Roma dugout in January 2016 – had cast a shadow over the coach’s second spell in the Eternal City. Many words have been spoken and written on the topic in subsequent years. Did Spalletti push Totti towards retirement? Does either party regret the breakdown in their relationship? Spalletti has spoken of making his decisions ‘thinking about the success of the team’. Given the third and second place league finishes he secured, with a team driven by the explosive form of Dzeko and Salah, it’s difficult to argue against his judgment. Yet this is Rome – a city rich in history, passion, and drama. The Giallorossi craved the perfect goodbye for their leader. But, and perhaps in keeping with the club’s recent fortunes, the fairy-tale ending just wasn’t quite to be.
Unsung Scudetto winner returns to Roma
When thoughts turn to Roma’s Scudetto-winning team of 2001, it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that Eusebio Di Francesco’s name isn’t among the first to spring to mind. However, between 1997 and 2001, the hard-working midfielder made 129 appearances for the Giallorossi, scoring 16 goals. At the end of his playing days, Di Francesco moved into management and it was his work with Emilia-Romagnan club Sassuolo that caught the attention of Roma’s owners following Luciano Spalletti’s departure. In 2012-13, Di Francesco led Sassuolo to the Serie B title and their first-ever promotion to the Italian top-flight. In subsequent seasons (save for a bizarre 33-day spell in early 2014 when Di Francesco was sacked but then reappointed to his post) he enjoyed relative success with the Neroverdi, keeping them in Serie A and guiding them to a Europa League group stage place in 2016/17.
Following Di Francesco’s return to the Olimpico to take up the role of Roma’s new manager, the club’s president, James Pallotta said: “We wanted someone who could come in and get the very best out of our first team players and also help bring through some of the great young talent coming out of our academy.” One such academy product, Lorenzo Pellegrini, had joined Sassuolo in 2015, but Roma retained a buy-back clause in his contract and the midfielder returned to the Eternal City with his manager in the summer of 2017.
Veteran Serbian left-back Aleksandar Kolarov was another summer arrival from Manchester City. The new campaign would mark the first time since 1991/92 that Francesco Totti wasn’t part of Roma’s first team squad, and the Giallorossi would also have to cope without the ever-impressive talents of Mo Salah, who had joined Liverpool.
Despite losing 3-1 at home to Inter Milan in the second league game of 2017/18, Di Francesco’s Roma side won five of their opening six league matches, which included an impressive 2-0 victory over Inter’s city rivals, AC, at the San Siro.
A defeat to Napoli in matchday eight was followed by five consecutive league victories, and Roma’s new manager endeared himself to the Giallorossi faithful by steering his side to a 2-1 win over Lazio in his first Rome derby as head coach. The derby victory – secured by a Diego Perotti penalty and a blockbuster strike from Radja Nainggolan – lifted Roma to fourth place in the table. Di Francesco’s side wouldn’t lose another league game until falling to defeat at Juventus two days before Christmas.
While Roma’s domestic form was promising, prospects were even brighter on the European front. What had looked like a tough Champions League draw – Roma were placed alongside Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Qarabag in Group C – ended with the Giallorossi finishing top of their section. The stand-out win came in matchday four when Roma swept aside former Juventus manager Antonio Conte’s Chelsea 3-0 at the Olimpico. Stephan El Shaarawy opened the scoring with a splendid right-foot volley and added a second goal before half-time. Victory was sealed courtesy of a Perotti thunderbolt in the second half.
The greatest moment of Roma’s group stage had come a fortnight earlier when the same two sides met in London. With Chelsea leading 2-1 after 63 minutes, Roma defender Federico Fazio had the ball just inside the opposition’s half. Spotting Edin Dzeko peeling away from his marker, the Argentinian defender sent a long ball forward. The Bosnian striker allowed the ball to travel across his right shoulder before crashing an unstoppable volley into the Chelsea net. Dzeko was enjoying another fine season in front of goal – he ended the campaign as Roma’s top scorer with 24 goals in all competitions – and his close-range header six minutes after the volley put Roma 3-2 up at Stamford Bridge. Eden Hazard’s header earned the home side a point, but the stage had been set for Roma’s subsequent win at the Olimpico.
As thrilling as the two ties against Chelsea were, they were merely a warm-up for one of the most famous nights in Roma’s recent history when a European heavyweight arrived at the Olimpico in the knock-out stages.
Manolas, the Greek God in Rome
“Roma have risen from their ruins. Manolas, the Greek God in Rome. The unthinkable unfolds before our eyes. This was not meant to happen. This could not happen. This is happening.” Peter Drury’s commentary on BT Sport provided a fitting tribute to a moment that set the Stadio Olimpico alight. A more deafening roar had arguably not been heard at the stadium since that Sunday in June 2001 when Roma secured the third league title in their history.
As Drury stated, this was not meant to happen. A week before the commentator’s ode to Roma’s Greek God, the Giallorossi had fallen to a 4-1 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final with Lionel Messi and Barcelona. The Giallorossi had arrived in the last eight following an away goals victory over Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 16. However, if they were to reach the last four, and a step closer to the club’s first appearance in a European Cup final since 1984, Roma would need to produce the performance of their lives against a star-studded side who had won the competition three years previously.
Perhaps fuelled by the romance and legend of the Eternal City, commentator Drury was in poetic mood pre-match, too. “There is an atmosphere here to seduce you into believing” he stated as the teams appeared on the pitch for the second leg. “In a city, on a site not short of ancient myth and legend, Roma emerge here daring to consider a modern epic.”
Within six minutes, who else but Dzeko penned the opening line. Latching on to Daniele De Rossi’s searching right foot pass, the Bosnian held off the attention of two Barca defenders before poking the ball home. Game on. Dzeko’s striker partner Patrik Schick – the young Czech had joined the Giallorossi from Sampdoria the previous summer – almost added a second goal just before half-time, but his header from close range flashed wide. It was a move that had started with a stunning switch of play from De Rossi, this time with his left foot. Too young to have been involved in the Scudetto-winning side of 2001 – he would make his senior debut the following season – Roma’s captain was dreaming of winning a major trophy with his hometown club. Ten minutes into the second half, he would be faced with one of his biggest moments in a Roma jersey when the Giallorossi were awarded a spot-kick. The sight of a rampaging Dzeko was causing panic in the Barcelona backline and Gerard Piqué hauled the number nine to the ground before he had a chance to shoot from close range. The referee took a moment to consider but then pointed to the spot. Barca goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen made a valiant effort but De Rossi’s penalty was struck with confidence and composure – 2-0, and things were now getting a bit serious.
Lionel Messi and his Barcelona teammates were completely stunned. The Spaniards managed a few forays towards Alisson’s goal but seemed to be desperately lacking the conviction they had displayed in the first leg.
The home side knew that one of the most famous results in the club’s history was within their grasp, but also that one slip-up in defence could be fatal.
With 82 minutes on the clock, Roma and Manolas’ moment arrived. Was the right arm that Turkish winger Cengiz Ünder raised before taking a corner a signal to the Greek defender? It certainly looked that way as Manolas darted to the front post, met Ünder’s delivery and glanced a header into the far corner of the net. Cue scenes of chaos in the stands and on the Olimpico pitch.
When the celebrations subsided, the reality dawned that there were still eight minutes, plus injury time, to play. Tension levels, already close to unbearable, reached fever pitch three minutes after Manolas’ goal when Messi broke free of the Roma defence, but his tame effort from six yards was gathered comfortably by a composed Alisson. Ousmane Dembélé also nearly ended Roma’s dream, but his chipped effort drifted over the crossbar. Eventually, the final whistle sounded. The Roma substitutes and staff streamed onto the pitch to join their jubilant teammates as a shell-shocked Barcelona sank to their knees. The party continued in the stands long after the final whistle. Were the celebrations excessive for a quarter-final victory? Perhaps, but this is Rome, a city of excess. Those who read part one of this 20-year story may recall the opening paragraphs describing the lavish scenes at the city’s historic Circus Maximus that marked the Giallorossi’s 2001 Scudetto triumph.
Roma had become only the third team in Champions League history to overturn a first leg defeat of three goals or more. De Rossi and Manolas had both scored own goals in the defeat in Spain but earned redemption, and more, in front of their adoring public a week later. At the end of it all, Roma were now in the last four of the European Cup for the first time since 1984.
Old friend returns to haunt Roma
As we have learned in Roma’s recent history, the highs tend not to last long and are usually followed by, often spectacular, falls. And so it was the case just two weeks after the 2017/18 season’s zenith against Barcelona that Roma arrived at their nadir against Liverpool at Anfield.
Before the semi-final first leg on April 24 had even got underway, it had become a dark night in Roma’s history. Having been attacked by a Roma supporter close to the stadium, Liverpool fan Sean Cox would go on to spend weeks in hospital and suffer life-changing injuries. It wasn’t the first time Roma fans had caused such trouble on the European stage, and President James Pallotta spoke out against the ‘morons’ destroying the club’s reputation with ‘the most disgusting stupidity’.
On the park, Roma were left to wonder what might have been had they not lost Mo Salah to Liverpool the previous summer. The Egyptian produced an attacking masterclass, ruthlessly exploiting Roma’s high defensive line as he helped himself to two goals and two assists to put Liverpool 4-0 ahead with only 61 minutes played. Roberto Firmino headed in his second goal and Liverpool’s fifth of the evening seven minutes later.
As Liverpool, Roma’s conquerors in the 1984 European Cup final, took their foot off the accelerator, the Giallorossi launched a late rally; two Roma goals in the final 10 minutes – courtesy of Dzeko and a Perotti penalty – offered a tiny glimmer of hope for the return leg in Rome the following week.
Despite a valiant effort at the Olimpico – Roma won the second leg 4-2 – there wasn’t to be a sequel to the Giallorossi’s ‘modern day epic’. The home side’s final two goals, both scored by Radja Nainggolan, came in the game’s closing stages and the visitors never looked in serious danger of suffering the same fate that befell Barcelona.
Critics may point to the naivety of Roma’s tactics at Anfield, leaving themselves exposed to the blistering pace, skill and intricate movements of Liverpool’s attacking trio of Salah, Firmino and Sadio Mane, but, in truth, the tie was a step too far for Di Francesco’s side. To reach the semi-finals of Europe’s premier club competition in his first season as manager is a feat for which Di Francesco should take immense credit.
Lifting themselves from the European exit, Roma finished the season strongly, securing third place in the league and ensuring another shot at the Champions League in 2018/19. Worryingly, however, six of Roma’s seven league defeats had come in front of their own fans at the Olimpico. Could Di Francesco build on a season of promise, improve the club’s domestic form at the Olimpico and launch an assault of Juventus’ Serie A dominance?