Another night on the European stage, another heart-breaking collapse. While it wasn’t exactly the same as their 4-3 defeat to Real Madrid last month, Tuesday’s 3-2 loss at Old Trafford shared many of the same hallmarks: Roma built an early lead and seemed poised to blow the barn doors off, only to let victory slip through their fingers because of poor execution, lapses in concentration, questionable subs, and, at least in yesterday’s result, shoddy refereeing.
After racing to a 2-0 lead in the 18th
minute, Roma was poised to compound Michael Carrick’s misery and doom the Red Devils to yet another early-season defeat. However, instead of seizing the chance to climb the Champions League ladder, the Giallorossi stumbled in the second half. After conceding a questionable penalty in the 58th minute (more on that in a moment), Gasperini’s group completely buckled, losing the lead and eventually the match to a Matheus Cunha brace in the 83rd and 86th minutes.
Given the result and everything that preceded it, today’s Sinners & Saints won’t be quite as chipper, but we’ll start with a pair of bright spots.
The Saints
Matías Soulé
Before the second half swoon, yesterday’s trip to Old Trafford was shaping up to be a personal showcase for Matías Soulé. Largely unknown to the Premiership-consuming world, Soulé was the star of the show early in the first half, giving Roma the early lead in the 11th minute thanks to a well-struck shot in the middle of the box.
Apart from his goal, Soulé spent most of the evening racing up and down the right flank, recovering six balls, playing five passes into the final third, and completing five line-breaking passes. It wasn’t his most statistically impressive performance of the season, but Soulé didn’t falter under the bright lights of the Theatre of Dreams.
Rodrigo Mora
For 45 minutes, the mop-topped 19-year-old Portuguese midfielder delivered the kind of performance that made you think, “Oh shit, United is going to pay €80 million for him at half-time, aren’t they?” In that time, Mora was arguably the best player on the pitch, creating three scoring chances, completing 90% of his passes (including all long attempts), recovering four balls, and playing four line-breaking passes.
And then he was subbed off…more on that in a moment.
Okay, enough with the pleasantries
The Sinners
The Penalty Call & Everything That Came After
Let’s dispense with the obvious: that was not a penalty. As he entered the area, at most, Cunha and Leonardo Balerdi inadvertently high-fived each other, but once he cleared that space, he tripped over his own feet; there was no contact between Mancini and Cunha’s trailing foot. If you want to claim that Balerdi impeded his progress, I can maybe abide by that, but that’s still an extremely ticky-tacky call.
But things went from bad to worse for the Giallorossi. After third-string keeper Devis Vasquez denied Bruno Fernandes’ penalty attempt, United was given a retake after Bryan Cristante was penalized for encroachment, entering the penalty area before Fernandes’ shot. It’s not a call you see very often, and United made Roma pay, converting their second attempt to cut Roma’s lead in half.
We seldom, if ever, single out officials in these spaces, but Jesus Gil Manzano’s decision stained the rest of the patch. Still, as upsetting as that call was, it doesn’t excuse Roma’s second half performance.
Gian Piero Gasperini
Out of custom, we’ll include the necessary proviso that managers don’t directly influence the match, but it’s hard to leave yesterday’s match thinking Gasperini worked it to perfection. The first half, with its progressive overloads, defense-stretching passes, and pressing, was working well enough to establish a 2-0 lead after only 20 minutes.
With Malen, Mora, and Soulé running wild, a three- or four-goal lead felt not only possible but inevitable. But once that penalty was taken (and re-taken), Roma responded by doing…nothing.
Despite seeing 49% of the ball in the second half, the Giallorossi didn’t attempt a single shot on goal. Not one. Not even a half-assed attempt from 20 yards out. Roma ceded control of the second half to United, making their eventual collapse a virtual certainty.
Gasperini didn’t cover himself in glory yesterday, but he was hardly alone in erring at Old Trafford.
Leonardo Balerdi
In the immortal words of The Stranger, played expertly by Sam Elliot in The Big Lebowski, sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes the bar, well, he eats you.
If you win as a team and lose as a team, I suppose you score as a team and concede as a team… but, oof, that swing-and-miss paved the way for Cunha’s 83rd-minute equalizer.
Mario Hermoso/Gianluca Mancini
Balerdi’s gaffe drew most of the attention, but his backline mates, Mario Hermoso, Gianluca Mancini, and even second-half sub Evan Ndicka, rode the struggle bus on Tuesday. Given the slight possession disparity, Roma’s gross defensive stats (interceptions, blocks, and the like) aren’t bad, but they lost the battles that mattered most: 50/50 balls and aerial duels, where United won at a 60% clip.
This isn’t a throw out the baby with the bathwater situation, but perhaps Gasperini needs to reshuffle the deck after the break.
There’s a world in which Roma is sitting on 1o points, trailing only PSG at the top of the Champions League table, but thanks to a pair of second-half collapses, the Giallorossi have dug their own grave. Rather than charting a smooth course to the Knockout Phase, Gasperini’s group has to walk a tightrope to remain within sniffing distance of the playoff round.
