Roma are in the Europa Conference League Final against Feyenoord on May 25 after Tammy Abraham’s header proved enough to see off Leicester City on the night, 2-1 on aggregate.
The first leg ended 1-1 at the King Power Stadium, so with the away goals rule no longer applied in Europe, this was a head-to-head. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Wilfried Ndidi and Ryan Bertrand were injured, with Timothy Castagne not 100 per cent fit.
Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free kick was parried with difficulty at the near post and Tammy Abraham soared above the crowd to nod in another Pellegrini corner, breaking the deadlock 11 minutes in.
Pellegrini again tested Kasper Schmeichel at the near post, while Nicolò Zaniolo’s attempt was deflected after an Abraham nutmeg.
Leicester had a lot of the ball as the half wore on, but not a single shot on target, so they made a double substitution at the break and mirrored Roma’s three-man defence.
A corner was taken short for Jamie Vardy, charged down by Abraham from 12 yards, probably the first attempt that was on target, followed by James Maddison straight at Rui Patricio on 79 minutes.
Timothy Castagne charged down a Zalewski effort and Kelechi Iheanacho fired into Rui Patricio’s arms from distance.
Roma’s players were visibly exhausted as the clock ticked down, many had cramp, Maddison blasting wide from the edge of the box in stoppages and Sergio Oliveira testing Schmeichel from an improbable angle.
Roma 1-0 Leicester City (2-1 agg)
Abraham 11 (R)
Roma: Rui Patricio; Mancini, Smalling, Ibanez; Karsdorp, Sergio Oliveira, Cristante, Zalewski (Vina 84); Zaniolo (Veretout 78), Pellegrini; Abraham (Shomurodov 88)
Leicester City: Schmeichel; Ricardo Pereira (Castagne 69), Fofana, J Evans, Justin; Tielemans; Lookman (Amartey 46), Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall (Perez 76), Barnes (Iheanacho 46); Vardy
Ref: Jovanovic (SRB)
Mourinho taking this bareboned Roma squad to the final is amazing. I don’t think they even have enough bench players! His finals record is amazing too so Roma would probably win this.
Well done, Roma. Nice to see them not collapse for a change lol
They’ll be favourites now, but hopefully they don’t take Feyenoord for granted.
If they win this it’ll be Serie A’s first European trophy in 12 seasons
Congratulations from a Juve fan! Even sweeter victory being against a epl team.
Congratulations to Roma. It’s been a while since an Italian club eliminated an EPL club in the knockout phase of a European competition, which makes this all the more sweeter.
Grazie Jose! Thank you for allowing us to dream again. As someone mentioned earlier, with a very bare squad. Lets hope he can do it, not just for Roma but for Serie A. DAJE ROMA!!!!
europa league conference.
Bravo Roma !
What I Like about Mourinho is that even if he was managing in Serie C he’d still go out and win the title and the Abruzzo Cup or whatever. He plays to win cup competitions. I really hope he wins this now for Rome.