DUISBERG – A torrid performance from AS Roma against Spanish side, Sevilla, saw them lose 2-0 and fall out of the Europa League at the round-of-16.

 The excitable atmosphere created by the announcement on Thursday of new billionaire owner, Dan Friedkin, was punctured on the pitch as the giallorossi were outclassed by Sevilla.

 It was a particularly galling night for Roma goalkeeper Pau López, who timidly conceded Roma’s first goal to a scuffed shot from Sevilla left-back Sergio Reguilón. López, who previously represented Sevilla’s bitter rivals Betis, then failed again to block a cross from Lucas Ocampos that gifted Youssef En-Neysri a tap-in to crush any hope of a fight back.

 The disappointment was amplified in the hundredth minute when centre-back Gianluca Mancini received a red-card for an elbow on Luuk de Jong. 

 Roma had been weakened significantly before the game when Manchester United refused to extend Chris Smalling’s loan spell in Rome to accommodate for the Europa League fixtures. United, favourites to win the competition, sought to take away any advantage from the Italian club for whom Smalling had impressed all season. Elsewhere, former United player Romelu Lukaku scored for Inter Milan on Wednesday to send them through to the quarter-finals, the only Italian side left in the tournament.

 Sevilla are the club with the most successes in Europe’s second competition, having won the Europa League five times, and will be hoping to do so again. They have been champions every time they have made the quarter-final stage in the past and are unbeaten in 18 matches under manager Julien Lopetegui. They go on to face Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers in the quarter-finals. 

 The game was played in Duisberg, Germany, due to the Coronavirus pandemic which has prompted UEFA to situate the entire competition in one host country to avoid excess cross-country travel and more easily manage any outbreaks. European football has been under much criticism particularly surrounding the Champions League game between Valencia and Atalanta on February 19. The side from Bergamo played the match in front of 45,000 fans from Italy and Spain at the San Siro stadium in Milan which has been cited as ‘game zero’ in the spread of the Coronavirus amongst those populations. A doctor from a Bergamo hospital described that game as a “biological bomb” which led to numerous positive tests in the Valencia squad and is believed to have contributed significantly to mass outbreaks in the cities of Bergamo, Valencia and Milan.

This game, and almost all others across Europe are now played without fans to prevent any further spread of the Coronavirus. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had been expected to announce the plans to return fans to stadiums, but the increase in cases in Italy and across Europe has put paid to any such arrangements.

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