Roma club legend Daniele De Rossi came aboard in late January following Jose Mourinho’s dismissal at the helm in the capital city. The 1-0 loss to Lazio just days prior signaled the end of the Portuguese gaffer’s time with the club.
De Rossi, who racked up 511 appearances for the club over 17 years, came aboard with little to no managerial experience — his only previous employment being the 4 months experience with Spal 2013.
Pitted against high-flying Brighton and Hove Albion from the English premier league, De Rossi will go toe-to-toe with his Italian counterpart whose daughters are best of friends.
After the draws, De Rossi commented “I doubt Roberto was very happy with the draw either. We got along well and we talked the first day, but that’s all. I always try to copy from the best and he is one of the best.”
European Backstory
Despite being one of the strongest teams in Italian football with many seasoned professionals donning her colours, Roma has had a below-par tale in continental inclinations.
I Giallorossi have only the recent UEFA conference league title to lay claim to in referred affairs. Under Jose Mourinho’s instructions, they went past Feyenoord Rotterdam in the final.
Nicolo Zaniolo calmly brought down Gianluca Mancini’s long ball and finished past a clueless Justin Bijlow to crown the Italian outfit as winners of the competition’s inaugural edition in 2021/2022.
Sitting as defending champions of the conference league, they earned automatic qualification to the 2022/2023 Europa League edition. With Jose Mourinho still at the helm, Roma cruised past the group stage and rounded up Salzburg, Real Sociedad, Feyenoord Rotterdam, and Bayer Leverkusen to set up a final affair with Sevilla.
The Spanish outfit being the most successful in the competition’s history took a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes and completed the tie with a 4-1 victory over penalties.
With seemingly underwhelming performances at this tournament, their best run besides the last campaign came in 2020/2021. Paulo Fonesca’s side, heavy on form in the tournament, lost to Manchester United 8-5 on aggregate.
AS Roma’s 2023/24 Europa League campaign
Roma’s group stage campaign featured Servette, FC Sheriff, and Slavia Prague. Tipped by many to be group leaders, Roma ended the phase in second place, 2 points behind Czech outfit Slavia Prague. A loss and draw in successive games to Slavia and Servette away in the Czech Republic and Switzerland respectively saw them drop costly points.
Settling in second place, they earned a tie with Dutch side Feyenoord Rotterdam in the playoff rounds.
The side they won the inaugural UEFA Conference league against in 2021/2022 and also defeated in the quarter-finals in 2022/2023 under Jose Mourinho.
With a change in managerial personnel, Feyenoord still incurred another damning defeat to the Italians. A 2-2 draw over both legs ended with the shootout going Roma’s way. Alireza Jahanbakhsh and David Hancko both missed to cancel out Romelu Lukaku’s earlier miss for the Italian side.
Roma have what it takes to beat Brighton – De Rossi
De Rossi took over where Jose Mourinho left off so far, recording only one loss in his start to life in the capital city. League leaders Inter Milan completed a 4-2 victory over the side while the ties to Hellas Verona, Salernitana, Cagliari, Frosinone, and Torino all ended in victories. De Rossi has declared their opponents as a very strong side but Roma certainly are no pushovers.
He claimed “Roma have nothing to fear, because we are every bit as strong.
“Maybe some games are easier to prepare than others and Brighton might cause me a few sleepless nights, but we have to find the right solutions.” Against the Brighton side, he’s described as strong and balanced with one of the best coaches in world football.
Daniele De Rossi has the services of veteran playmaker Paulo Dybala as well as summer signing Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea. The former most recently got a hat-trick in the narrow 3-2 victory over Torino at the Rome capital.
On his hat-trick hero, De Rossi complimented “Champions are decisive in this sport and nobody can doubt that”.
I Gillorossi sit just outside the Champions League spots and would be eyeing Europa League victory as a more secured route to make it into next year’s event.
The double-legged affair
The first leg will take place at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on March 7th and the return leg is scheduled for the AMEX exactly a week later. Roma tickets continue to sell fast ahead of the fixtures.
High-flying Brighton continues to make a statement in England as they attempt to secure another European campaign ahead of the coming season. In the current one, the Seagulls finished atop a supposed group of death featuring Olympique Marseille, AFC Ajax, and AEK Athens to earn a knockout berth.
The versed Roberto De Zerbi, now linked with jobs in Barcelona, Munich, and even Merseyside, will expectedly be on the best of his tactical onus as he attempts to get past his countryman.
With the pedigree of Jose Mourinho speaking for itself on the European stage, there’s much pressure on Daniele De Rossi to continue this upturn of form with a positive campaign for the rest of the tournament.
Anything short of a final berth might indeed be seen as a dent to the fine continental work the Portuguese gaffer put in over the last 2 seasons. Brighton and Hove Albion crashed out of the FA Cup to Wolverhampton Wanderers and this remains the only competitive inclination aside from the domestic league.
De Zerbi will be without the services of Kaoru Mitoma ruled out for the rest of the season and will be hopeful of the fitness of season top scorer Joao Pedro and the veteran James Milner.