Is AS Roma the next AS Monaco?
(Baonghean.vn) - What coach Di Francesco and his team have achieved in this year's Champions League has many similarities with AS Roma last season.
Although they could not overcome Liverpool to win a ticket to the final, the Olimpico team can still leave the tournament with their heads held high.
In all fairness, AS Roma deserved to win against Liverpool with a bigger score than the 4-2 result in the second leg, if the refereeing team had made more accurate and fair decisions. There were at least two situations where AS Roma should have been awarded penalties, when Dzeko was fouled by goalkeeper Karius (minute 49) and defender Alexander-Arnold handled the ball in the penalty area (minute 63). Unfortunately, referee Skomina shook his head and refused both.
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| Goalkeeper Alisson is being pursued by Real Madrid and Liverpool. Photo: Internet |
Anyway, the match result has been decided, AS Roma had to accept to stop at the semi-finals with regret. The task now of coach Di Francesco and his team is to win a position in the TOP 4 Serie A season 2017/2018. Currently, the Olimpico team is in 4th place on the rankings. After 35 rounds, AS Roma has 70 points, equal to the team in 3rd place, Lazio and 4 points more than the team in 5th place, Inter Milan. The opportunity to win a position in the TOP 4 is quite big for De Rossi and his teammates.
It seems that the task of winning a ticket to the group stage of the Champions League next season is not too difficult for AS Roma. Just need to get 6/9 maximum points in the last 3 rounds, the team nicknamed Giallorossi will certainly be in the TOP 4 Serie A. However, another task that is not easy for AS Roma to successfully carry out is to keep the pillars at the Olimpico stadium. A series of greetings are continuously being sent to Alisson, Florenzi, Manolas, Nainggolan, Schick, Dzeko, Under...
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| AS Monaco won Lique 1 in the 2016/2017 season. Photo: Internet |
With its financial potential and reputation, AS Roma cannot compare with Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool... The case of star Salah leaving Olimpico to join Liverpool in the summer transfer window of 2017 is a typical example. If the above stars are lost, AS Roma's squad next season will be seriously affected. In a short time, coach Di Francesco will hardly be able to build AS Roma into a fearsome machine like it is now.
Most likely, the Olimpico team will follow in the footsteps of AS Monaco. The 2016/2017 season was considered extremely successful for the Principality team AS Monaco. Coach Jardim and his team won the Lique 1 title and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League (lost to Juventus). Losing Mbappe to PSG, Bernardo Silva, Mendy to Man City, along with the psychological turmoil of Fabinho, Lemar due to the attraction of Man Utd, Arsenal... has made AS Monaco no longer itself.
The Louis II home team had to helplessly watch their opponent PSG easily win the Lique 1 championship with 5 rounds to go. In the Champions League, AS Monaco was eliminated in the group stage, even though they only had to face teams that were not highly rated, Besiktas, Porto and Leipzig. Finishing last in the group with only 2 points was a very bad result for coach Jardim and his team. What AS Monaco is going through is an obvious lesson for AS Roma in the near future.
Will AS Roma's 2018/2019 season be a version of AS Monaco's 2017/2018 season? The answer is still ahead, depending on the players and the leadership of the Olimpico team./.