Yesterday’s Champions League fixture against Real Madrid was a case study in the extremes of being a Roma fan. What started as a heartwarming reunion between José Mourinho and the Giallorossi faithful ended in absolute heartbreak for Roma supporters, who watched in horror as the club squandered a two-goal lead with seven minutes remaining, winding up on the wrong side of the scorer’s ledger.
However, between the raucous applause for the Special One and the almost deafening silence that followed Antonio
Rüdiger’s 90th-minute match-winner at the Olimpico, Roma fans the world over experienced a panoply of emotions. From the agony of Mario Hermoso’s near miss early in the match to Marten de Roon’s cracking 20th-minute goal, which was canceled out by an equally beautiful, albeit deflected, strike from Kylian Mbappe five minutes later, the first half alone was enough to give us collective agita.
Still, despite those emotional swings, heading into the break level with Los Galacticos was a feather in Roma’s cap. However, within 12 minutes of the restart, that moral victory in the making gave way to visions of grandeur after a Donyell Malen double gave Roma a two-goal lead as the match approached the hour mark.
Gasperini’s group continued to flex their muscles for the ensuing half hour or so, looking every bit Real Madrid’s equal, if not their superior. But with just seven minutes remaining, Roma’s dreams were dashed as Mourinho’s men equalized and eventually won the match with not one, not two, but three set-piece goals in 420 seconds.
Where one ranks this disaster on the scale of bottling a Scudetto against Sampdoria or conceding seven goals multiple times in the Champions League is a matter of taste, but there is no removing the stain of this defeat. Roma had a statement victory in their grasp, only to see the opportunity (and three points) slip through their fingers like so many grains of sand.
As one would expect given these circumstances, today’s Sinners & Saints will be heavy on the pitchforks, so let’s start with the few rays of sunshine from an otherwise dreary evening in the Eternal City.
The Saints
Donyell Malen
After a brief two-match goal drought, punctuated by last weekend’s early sending-off with a questionable straight red card, Sir Bobby the Bald One was back to his usual self yesterday. While his brace was ultimately wasted by the club’s poor set-piece defending, Real had no answer for the prolific Dutchman, who time and time again tore the top off Mourinho’s backline.
All told, Malen led all comers with 10 touches in the opposition box and four shots on goal, two of which, of course, found the back of the net. Malen’s 51st-minute strike was particularly impressive: he turned a measly 0.07 xG opportunity into a 0.38 xGOT, a 443% increase in expected goal value!
He’s good, this one.
Matías Soulé
Matí didn’t bulge the old onion bag, as Tommy Smyth was fond of saying, but in only 63 minutes, he managed a game-high three chances created. By setting up de Roon’s first-half cracker and Malen’s second goal, Soulé was Roma’s chief creator. Beyond those two assists, Soulé played three balls into the final third, three line-breaking passes, and went 4-for-4 on long passes.
Marten de Roon
His goal may not have been as statistically impressive as Malen’s first strike, but on aesthetic value alone, it was a jaw-dropper: a perfectly timed and perfectly placed goal from a man better known as a grinder than a goal scorer. In addition to gifting Roma an early lead, de Roon played six balls into the final third, six line-breaking passes while contributing five defensive actions.
Okay, now we have no choice but to look at the other side of the coin.
The Sinners
Pierluigi Gollini
Over the weekend, Roma’sbar-spitting backup keeper was the talk of the town after an impressive Svilar-esque performance against Como. Making his first league start in two years, Gollini delivered a game-saving performance thanks to an array of aggressive run outs, fast-twitch saves and even a sweeper action.
Granted, Real Madrid is a step or two above Como, but Gollini dropped the ball last night, literally in the case of Carlos Espí’s 83rd-minute goal, where his poor handling of Endrick’s initial attempt gave the Spanish striker a gimme goal. As ugly as that sequence was, the advanced stats paint a horrific picture. While Gollini made four saves and one high claim, he conceded nearly two more goals than expected: 2.23 xGOT faced vs. -1.77 goals prevented.
Few among us were expecting Roma to pull off a 2004 Porto-level miracle and win the Champions League, but put Svilar in the net last night, and we’re singing an entirely different tune today.
Nahuel Molina
The standard match ratings were pretty kind to Molina, but sometimes a moment of indecision matters more than aggregated stats. In Molina’s case, his shambolic defending at the back post may have ultimately cost Roma the match.
We can’t be certain what was going through his head in that moment, but watch the first goal, and you’ll see Molina do nothing- literally nothing- as Espí almost walks past him on the tap-in. Whether there was a doubt about offside or not, that’s inexcusable. You can’t let up against anyone, let alone Real Madrid.
Set-Piece Defending
It’s not often that we include a conceptual framework in S&S, so rather than singling out any single player, we’ll go with a collective pitchfork here. We dropped this frame into yesterday’s match review, but its worth another glimpse.
From poor spacing to negligent back-post defending to ill-timed jumps, pretty much everything that can go wrong while defending a set-piece did—three times. It would have been one thing if Roma bottled this thanks to, say, one set piece, an Mbappe masterclass, and maybe a failed offside trap, but conceding three straight goals off of corners is unfathomable.
I didn’t get invited to Trigoria this week, but it’s a safe assumption that Gasperini will offer a refresher on defending a corner.
And, last but certainly not least, we have to talk about the silver-haired man on the sidelines himself.
Gian Piero Gasperini
We rarely include managers in S&S because, even though they make the calls, matches are decided on the pitch; ultimately, the players’ execution matters most. Still, since we implemented this series during the pandemic, we’ve seen Paulo Fonseca, José Mourinho, and Ivan Juric in these spaces before—and maybe Daniele De Rossi, but I have an admitted bias when it comes to DDR.
And you can see the planning-versus-execution debate in this clip.
Nigel Reo-Coker tries to make the case that Roma’s poor marking on corners falls at Gasperini’s feet and, to a lesser extent, on his assistants, who, according to Reo-Coker, should have paid closer attention to the marking schemes and made adjustments. Mike Grella counters that set-piece defending is arranged during the week, implying there is little of consequence that can be done in the match. Troy Deeney also counters Reo-Coker’s claim that Gasp should have gone more defensive by citing his second-half subs: a midfielder (Pellegrini) and two center-backs (Balerdi and Koulierakis).
Point being, when critiquing managerial decisions, separating correlation from causation is incredibly difficult. However, the old saying “the buck stops here” is applicable here—we can’t absolve Gasperini for Roma’s sins late in the match.
