Roma twice had to fight back for a 2-2 draw against Bodo/Glimt at the Stadio Olimpico, with Stephan El Shaarawy and Roger Ibanez, but were denied two clear penalties.
The Giallorossi were still smarting after the 6-1 humiliation in Norway, which prompted Jose Mourinho to insist he could not rotate his squad due to the lack of quality. Matias Vina, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Chris Smalling were injured, but Bryan Cristante moved into defence, with Roger Ibanez switched to left-back.
Tammy Abraham’s chest and volley flashed wide, while an acrobatic Stephan El Shaarawy scissor-kick volley from a corner was deflected at the near post.
Jordan Veretout shinned it wide on the half-volley, while Nicolò Zaniolo’s touch was heavy on a promising counter-attack.
Goalkeeper Nikita Haikin was very alert, rushing off his line to smother at the feet of both Zaniolo and El Shaarawy.
Bodo/Glimt always seemed dangerous when they attacked and took the lead with a sensational strike from Ola Solbakken, who thumped it first time into the top corner with his left boot from just inside the box on Hagen’s assist.
Gonzalo Villar came on for the restart, his first appearance since the debacle in Norway. There was controversy, as there’s no VAR in the Europa Conference League, so the blatant handball was not spotted by Brede Moe to take the cross away from El Shaarawy.
El Shaarawy did get the equaliser, as he cut inside from the left and curled right-footed into the far top corner, a traditional Little Pharaoh strike.
Just as Roma were pouring forward, they went behind again, as Erik Botheim was allowed a totally free header on the Sampsted cross from six yards.
Lode performed an extraordinary clearance to hook the deflected cross away from Eldor Shomurodov a couple of yards from goal at the back post.
Shomurodov saw his strike deflected over and there were more potential handball penalty appeals ignored.
Gianluca Mancini thought he had to score from a corner, but incredibly thumped it against the upright from point-blank range.
More desperate defending prevented Shomurodov tapping in the Borja Mayoral pull-back from the by-line and a fingertip save pushed the El Shaarawy volley wide.
On the resulting corner, Mayoral floated a cross to the back post for the Roger Ibanez header, which goal-line technology confirmed had crossed over.
Roma 2-2 Bodo/Glimt
Solbakken 45 (B), El Shaarawy 54 (R), Botheim 65 (B), Ibanez 84 (R)
Mayoral floated a cross to the back post for the offside placed Roger Ibanez header, which goal-line technology confirmed had crossed over.
You complain about denied penalties but you don’t mention that Roma‘s 2-2 was offside and should be anulled
Mourinho is clearly the bitter one! Yeah, one clear penalty not rewarded, and some doubtful. He failed to mention the offside equalizer. Mounting his best team on home ground and still this. Last Conference match it was the players thrown under the bus, now it was all the ref’s fault.
Grandeeee Roma, Italy is proud!
Master Tactician and his protégé – Tammy have to go…that is so embarrassing
I never seen such a selfish group of players ( Roma ) , predominately young , trying to play a “team” sport game.
Master Tactician style – “bus parking” or whatever it calls does not work. He is not bringing players together , on contrary everyone on the pitch just wants to score individually and gets on evening news.
I don’t get it. A modest Norwegian team and 1 Point in 6 is all Roma can manage?
Are Italian clubs really this bad?
Why does this new league even exist? It is a waste of money, resources. And can only lead to player injuries. I feel EUFA may be the only ones profiting from this. How many more meaningless games can FIFA and EUFA come up with.