AS Roma 4 Brighton 0/Europa League Round of 16
Brighton’s courageous Europa campaign has surely ended last night in the hostile atmosphere of the Olimpico.
Some will attribute the 4-0 defeat to poor recent form and crass defending but, whilst this is true, the reality is more that the squad was not strong enough to sustain the combined demands of the Premiership and Europa League, especially with key injuries to Joao Pedro, Solly March and Kouru Mitoma.
Star left back Pervis Estupian was also an absentee.
Brighton had a few chances but did not take them.
Sad to say, Lewis Dunk who has been a stalwart in the incredible journey from Division One to the Premiership, is looking increasingly a liability.
He carelessly miskicked to let Romolu Lukaku through for Roma’s second and crucial goal just before half time. Lukakau and Dybala – with his searing pace – always had the better and beating of Van der Ecke and Dunk.
One sad but typical aspect of the game was the violence of the Roma ultras.
It is high time that UEFA forced Roma to do something about their fans or imposed a severe penalty upon them. Their violent unprovoked hooliganism had gone on too long.
Stories have abounded of violent attacks and stabbings as experienced by two Albion fans near the Colosseum but, according to Stefano Ursolini, Italian clubs have for too many years been passive – and indeed complicit – in dealing with this problem.
For this reason I did not go to Rome and may not go to the home tie this coming Thursday which now seems a formality.
