Roma crushed Barcelona

Roma crushed Barcelona

The Roman Roma created the main sensation of the current Champions League tournament, having recouped from 4:1 at Camp Nou and advanced to semi-finals of the most prestigious club tournament of the Old World.

A day before the match, there were disagreements about the scale of Ernesto Valverde’s role at the post of Barcelona’s head coach. The reason of disagreement between experts became the opinions on has the former Athletic Bilbao manager added something new to the game structure of the Catalan grand. Most tend to think that Bacelona have big gaps between the zones of defense, midfield and attack. While the last lines were regarded as whole, the transition from defense happened only thanks to Sergio Busquets. At Olimpico the Spaniard didn’t cope with the task completely and was replaced by the end of the match.

Because of anthropometric advantage and selflessness, Roma repeated the achievement of 2002, when they also outplayed Blaugranas, 3:0, at home and advanced to the Champions League semi-finals. In the second match Eusebio Di Francesco made a naccent on the zonal pressing, vertical passes and the Romans’ advantage in the air. The Italian’s plan for the game worked out and Dzeko’s first goal after a pass from the deep, after which he outplayed ter Stegen without any problems.

The second goal also came due to the Bosnian, who made Gerard Pique to foul on him and earned a penalty shot and De Rossi realized it with a powerful shot to the right corner of the goal.

Gomes’ exit on the pitch instead of Iniesta didn’t become panacea and one minute later after the corner Manolas sent the ball to the net, having secured advancement for Roma.

Di Francesco was humble at the after-match press conference and said the following:

“I am a simple man, who tries to pass his ideas and convince players that everything is possible”.

The manager fulfilled the task, having passed the ideas for the match to footballers’ heads. Roma players didn’t have an opportunity to retreat at overcrowded Olimpico and crushed the guests from Catalonia. THe match statistics speaks for itself – Roma were stronger. Stronger enough to leave Barcelona behind the board of the Champions League and advance to semi-finals, where they will meet with other three strongest clubs of Europe.