World Soccer - UK (2022-07)

Despitethatenthusiasm,Roma’s
seasonwas notallplainsailing.Bythe
sixthgameweekoftheseason,theyhad
alreadylosttwice,firstto Veronaand
then,morepainfully, to citycousins,
Lazio.Likewise,therewerehiccupsin
theConferenceLeague,mostfamously
whenanunderstrengthsidemanaged to
lose6-1 to theArcticCircleNorwegians,
Bodo/Glimt,inthe groupstagelast
October.
Inthe end,
Romaredeemed
themselves,
comfortably
defeatingthesame
opponents 5 -2on
aggregate in the
quarter-finalsin April,before beating
LeicesterCity2-1 in theirsemi-finaltie.
Inthe othersemi-final,Feyenoordhad
eliminatedMarseille3-2.
Onthe eveofthe finalandonthe
lastdayoftheSerieA season,Roma
thengavethemselvesa hugemorale
boost,beatingTorino3-0awayto
securetheirEuropaLeagueplace
fornextseason.That winbuckeda
negative five-matchtrend in SerieA
ofthreedrawsandtwo defeats,
settingthemupforthefinal.
Inthe final,evenwhena younger,
fresher-lookingFeyenoord openedup
menacingly, Mourinho’s teamnot only
held theirnervebutalsostruckfirst
bloodwitha well-takengoalfromNicolo
Zaniolointhe 3 2ndminute,followingan
intelligent 40 -yard passfromdefender
GianlucaMancini.Fromthatpointon,
RomadefendedintypicalMourinho
fashionandhungoninthere.
ThefactthatFeyenoordhad 67
percentpossessioninthe entiregame
andthatRoma’stwobestplayerson
thenightwerecentral defenderChris
SmallingandgoalkeeperRuiPatricio

ROMA 1

(Zaniolo 32 )

FEYENOORD 0

HT: 1 -0Ref:IstvanKovacs

2022 EUROPACONFERENCELEAGUEFINAL

May 25 – ArenaKombetare,Tirana

WHATTHEY

SAID

JOSEMOURINHO

(Romacoach)

“Winningisverydifficult.You need

manyingredients.Our team hasplayed

55 games.Wereached thefinal being

tied, butwekeptithidden. This is a

fantastic groupofplayers;thatmakes me

emotional.Westruggled in thesecond

half; ouropponents played well andthey

forcedustomakedefensive changes.”

TAMMY ABRAHAM

(Romastriker)

“IsaidwhenI came hee that’mgoing

tohelpmyteamget to thefinal and

one dayI want to wina tophy. In my

first season,I’veachievedthat. Credit

tomyteam-matesfor excellent

perfomances. We’vedeserved

it; we worked hard allyear.”

CHRIS SMALLING

(Romadefender)

“We knew howmuchitwould mean

toeveryoneinRomeand youcan see

how together we areuntil theend.We

dropped abit deeper than we needed

to, butyou couldsee strikers running

back– everyone knew we hadtowin”

ARNESLOT

(Feyenoordcoach)

“toldthe players

duringthe break

whattheyhad to

dobetter. In the

secondhalf, we

weresharp fom

the firstmoment,

but youneeda

bit ofuck andwe

didn’tget it.Wehad thetimeand

opportuntytoscore andwedidn’t.

Maybe that’s to do with thequaltyof

the opponent.”

JUSTINBIJLOW

(Feyenoordgoalkeeper)

“Thefirst half,wedidn’tput them unde

asmuchpressureaswedid in thesecond.

Weplayedthe ball roundatthe back,and

thatsuits them.Inthe second half,we

had more possession andopportunities.

It’sa pity we didn’t startthisway.”

saysmuchaboutRoma’sdisciplined,

defensive performance.Roma’sonly

wobblecameina ten-minute period

ofintenseFeyenoordpressure just

after half-timewhen theDutch side

hitthe woodworktwiceandhadtwo

othergoodchancessaved by the

in-form Romagoalkeeper.

Inthe end, Feyenoordcouldnot

breakdownRoma. When Romanian

refereeKovacsblewthefinalwhistle,

theRomabench swampedMourinho

asheranontothepitchgesticulating

wildlyandindicatingthe numberfive

withhisoutstretchedhand.Thiswas

hisfifthEuropeantrophy (Champions

Leagues with Portoand Inter, aUEFA

CupwithPortoandaEuropaLeague

withManchester United).

Itremains to be seenwhat“Mou”will

donext.Intears,he

toldItalianTVthat

theRomafanswere

“incredible”and

thathewantedto

talktoclubowner,

USbillionaire Dan

Friedkin, aboutthe

future,adding:“Before thegame,I told

myplayers...to writea pagein club

history...andwewrote thatpage”.

Maybehehasa fewmorepagesstill

towrite.

PaddyAgnew

WORLDSOCCER 37

2022 EUROPACONFERENCELEAGUEFINAL

EUROPACONFERENCELEAGUE REVIEW

Gutted...Feyenoord

centre-backMarcos

Senesi consolesteam-

mateLuisSinisterra

Winner...Nicolo

Zaniolowatches

hisshot hitthenet

SportsdailyGazzettadelloSport

summedupthemoodthenextday

withonefront-pagebannerheadline,

readingsimply,“GrazieRoma”

Bow

Geertruida

Maacia

Jahanbakhsh

raune

(eerse)

Aursnes

essesT

(ornstra 59)

Neson

(Linssen 74

(WalKoemarcuk 8Se)nesi

Sinsterra

rico

Karsdorp

Vina 89

Abrahm

(Shomurod 8 )

Mancini

khitaryan

(liveira17)Zaniolo

(Veretout 66)

Smlg

ristante

Pellegrini

Zalewski

(Spinazzola 67)

Iban

High-five...Mourinho marks hisfifth European Coach:JoseMorinho Coach: Arne Slot
triumphwiththeinauguralConferenceLeague