Roma scored one of the most shocking upsets in Champions League history on Tuesday, defeating Barcelona 3-0 to knock the Spanish powerhouse out of the tournament.
Barcelona headed into the second leg of the quarterfinal match with a 4-1 aggregate lead after a dominating performance at home. But while that put Barcelona in excellent position to move on, the goal for Roma was a slight concern, as away goals are the first tiebreaker in the Champions League knockout rounds.
Three Unforgettable Roma Goals
Roma put themselves right back in the thick of things with a sixth minute goal by Edin Dzeko. The score then stayed that way until the 58th minute, when Daniele De Rossi converted a penalty to make the score 2-0 with more than a half-hour left to play.
With the aggregate score now 4-3, Roma would need just one more goal in order to go through to the semifinals. It was Kostas Manolas who would ultimately score the critical goal, heading in a cross from Cengiz Under to give Roma a 3-0 lead in the game. With the overall score 4-4 and Roma having scored the only away goal, it was the Italian side that advanced when the final whistle was blown.
The win puts Roma in the Champions League semifinal for the first time in club history. After such a momentous accomplishment, their manager was not in the mood to be modest about his role in the victory.
“I take the blame for defeats and some ungrateful words on social media, so I may as well take the credit for a win,” Di Francesco told Mediaset Premium. “Although we have had very good performances in Serie A, we are only now reaping the rewards – the just rewards – for the hard work we have done.”
A Comeback for the Ages
This was only the third time in the history of the Champions League that a team overcame a three-goal deficit after the first leg of a knockout round. Barcelona was on the winning side of one of those results last year, when they came back from a 4-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain with a 6-1 win to advance 6-5 in the Round of 16.
Roma was a significant underdog just to win their home match, let alone to do so by such a margin that they would advance. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook didn’t even offer odds on Roma moving through to the semifinals, with manager Jeff Sherman telling ESPN that the odds on Barcelona advancing “would have been in the neighborhood of 1/100.”
None of that mattered on the pitch, though, and Barcelona’s players were stunned in the aftermath of their historic loss.
“It seems untrue. Very hard to accept,” said Barcelona captain Andrea Iniesta. “With the advantage we had we went out because we really did things badly. The Champions League punishes you for that.”
In other Champions League action on Tuesday, Liverpool scored a 2-1 away win at Manchester City to advance 5-1 on aggregate. While City started strong with a second-minute goal from Gabriel Jesus, second-half goals from Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino secured another victory for Liverpool.