Advertisement
How did Roma pull off the shoc...

Sport

How did Roma pull off the shock of all shock comebacks against Barcelona?

98FM
98FM

09:54 10 Apr 2018


Share this article


While most eyes were firmly focused on Manchester City's ultimately fruitless attempt to overturn their first leg defeat to Liverpool, the shock of the night happened in Rome tonight.

Barcelona had gone into tonight's Champions League quarter final second leg against AS Roma holding a 4-1 lead.

How did Roma pull off the shock of all shock comebacks against Barcelona?

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

And given the pedigrees of both clubs, no one would have expected Roma to do to Barcelona what the Catalans had done to PSG last season by staging an epic comeback.

But Roma roared back to secure a shock 3-0 win to reach the semi finals of Europe's premier club competition for the first time in the Champions League era.

To make sense of it all, we were joined by football writer James Horncastle.

Roma's Daniele De Rossi, left, scores his side's second goal during the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Roma and FC Barcelona at Rome's Olympic Stadium, Tuesday, April 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

"Just the most incredible, remarkable performance by Roma," he told Joe on our Football Show.

"I didn't think they were out of it completely because I thought they played very well a week ago at the Camp Nou. They were just done by misfortune really. Three own goals practically, two penalty decisions they didn't get.

"They changed things up tonight. They played with the same spirit that they did in Catalunya.    

"But it's the first time Eusebio di Francesco the Roma manager has basically gone away from his system 4-3-3. He's always played that throughout his career, even though it hasn't really suited these players. Tonight he goes to a 3-4-2-1 and my oh my did it work. Barca just had no answer to it at all. Barca didn't look at the races in this game at all. It wasn't even a contest, just very one-sided."

He also detailed how the win was just the latest in a succession of games in which Roma upset the applecart in Europe this season including coming out of a group including Chelsea and Atletico Madrid, before overcoming a dangerous Shakhtar Donetsk.

You can watch the Football Show back in full on YouTube including Joe's chat with James Horncastle:


Share this article


Read more about

Sport

You might like