"After the 3-1 result they thought the game was dead, but the Roma players were dead." Coach José Mourinho's statement after the Roma-Real Madrid match deepens the disappointment even more. Until the 81st minute, the yellow and reds were leading 3-1, but then, within 7 minutes, a perfect reversal materialized: they conceded 3 goals from set pieces, wasting an evening that could have been extraordinary, but which instead left behind only great bitterness for the 4-3 defeat.
Gasperini's team gave everything, even after losing Koné in midfield and Dybala in attack. They relied on Malen, who scored a brace. Then they ran out of steam. They were very close to achieving a great success, but they gave up against an opponent who is stronger on the field and has more options to put into play.
Arda Guler, Endrick and Espi were the substitutes who gave the decisive turn to the match. Turku provided 2 assists, 3 key passes and 3 crosses in half an hour. The other two finished the job by scoring goals, taking advantage of the uncertainty and unluckiness of the yellows in set pieces. The final blow was given by former player Rudiger.
"At first they surprised us with Soulé on the wing, who was difficult to control. But I think you could say it was two games in one," added the Special One. "A game in which Roma were superior in all aspects and, after twenty minutes, Real Madrid were impossible to stop."
On paper, the technical superiority was and remains evident. And if Vinicius, perhaps still shaken by the heavy punishment of a 4-match suspension in La Liga, appeared in the shadows, the other star, Mbappé, seemed to shine. The rest was done by a team that has enough quality to overturn situations that seem compromised.
"The second goal we conceded is ridiculous, you can't concede a goal like that in a competition of this level," is Mourinho's analysis. "But even if we had conceded a fourth or fifth goal, nothing would have changed." Why? Even this last sentence from the Portuguese Mourinho sounds like a final decision.
"It's very difficult to play with the same intensity throughout the match, as Roma did. We made the right substitutions and then they no longer had either the tactical or physical capacity to cope with the attacking football we played". Immediately after the match came the response of the technician Gasperini: "We dominated them in everything, it's a pity that we didn't score more goals. And if there was anyone who couldn't, it was their own players... It's a pity that we conceded a goal from a corner. In those situations we were really passive".
