Roma’s season has well and truly fallen apart after a 3-0 home defeat sent Fiorentina through to the Europa League quarter-final.
Roma’s season has well and truly fallen apart after a 3-0 home defeat sent Fiorentina through to the Europa League quarter-final.
The first leg ended 1-1, even though Adem Ljajic’s penalty was saved, so the pressure was on Fiorentina to score at the Olimpico. These sides had already met here in February’s Coppa Italia quarter-final, the Viola emerging 2-0 winners thanks to a Mario Gomez brace. The Giallorossi’s campaign was plummeting after elimination from the Champions League, Coppa Italia and at the weekend their Serie A lead in second place was cut to just one point.
Radja Nainggolan was suspended with Douglas Maicon and Victor Ibarbo sidelined, while David Pizarro and Ciprian Tatarusanu didn’t make the trip.
It took just six minutes for Jose Holebas to completely mistime his tackle, going into the back of Mati Fernandez for a penalty. Gonzalo Rodriguez converted, but had to re-take due to encroachment, and kept his cool to change angle and score again.
Miralem Pjanic volleyed wide of the near post and Vasilis Torosidis turned a free header off target from a corner.
It was a total howler from Lukasz Skorupski that gifted Fiorentina their second goal. The ‘keeper fumbled a back-header and in trying to keep it from crossing the line for a corner, accidentally flapped it into the path of Marcos Alonso, who only had to walk it into the empty net.
Roma simply fell apart and moments later conceded a third, as Jose Maria Basanta was allowed a totally free header from a corner thanks to shambolic defending. Borja Valero accidentally elbowed Basanta during the celebration and left him with a nasty cut to the eyebrow.
Juan Manuel Iturbe was thrown on for defender Torosidis and Norberto Neto parried an Adem Ljajic effort, but many ultras in the Curva Sud walked out just half-an-hour in. They also put up a banner that read: ‘Rome is fed up… see you soon.’
Pjanic thought he had scored on 37 minutes, but his header from a corner was cleared off the line by Borja Valero. Stefan Savic rushed back from injury to play tonight, but it flared up again and he had to be replaced.
Seydou Keita also went off injured for striker Daniele Verde. It was almost 4-0 straight after the restart, but Mo Salah went on a splendid run only to smash his shot against the crossbar.
Skorupski fingertipped a Khouma Babacar angled drive off target, while the striker and Iturbe fired at the goalkeepers. Gervinho sprinted on goal only to hesitate when going round Neto and was forced out for a corner.
Alessandro Florenzi wanted a penalty for a Basanta handling offence, but as the defender came sliding in it was considered involuntary. Salah thumped the frame of the goal again, his left-foot finish going beyond Skorupski.
Having walked out at half-time, the 10,000 Roma ultras marched back in with 10 minutes to go in order to stage a protest against team, Coach and club. Among the chants were ‘we only support the shirt’ and ‘go do some real work.’
Amid this huge tension, Ljajic went into a late tackle on Alberto Aquilani, receiving his second yellow card.
Roma 0-3 Fiorentina (1-4 agg)
Scorers: Gonzalo Rodriguez pen 9 (F), Alonso 18 (F), Basanta 22 (F)
Roma: Skorupski; Torosidis (Iturbe 27), Yanga Mbiwa (Astori 58), Manolas, Holebas; Pjanic, De Rossi, Keita (Verde 44); Florenzi, Gervinho, Ljajic
Fiorentina: Neto; Savic (Tomovic 41), Gonzalo Rodriguez, Basanta; Joaquin, Mati Fernandez, Badelj, Borja Valero (Aquilani 78), Alonso; Babacar (Vargas 63), Salah
Ref: Cakir (TUR)
Sent off: Ljajic 88 (R)