In January this year, Roma made a drastic decision, parting ways with Mourinho and appointing the inexperienced De Rossi to take over the team.
Roma current coach, De Rossi
Seeing their results, they prematurely announced that De Rossi would continue coaching the team in the next season.
In this round of Serie A matches, Roma faced Atalanta away from home.
Losing this match would virtually extinguish Roma’s hopes of finishing in the top five of the league.
AS Roma 1-2 Atalanta
Ultimately, they were defeated 1-2, and Roma will pay a heavy price for this loss.
In the first half, they were completely overwhelmed by De Ketelaere’s attacks, conceding two goals in just 2 minutes. Roma’s defense was easily torn apart.
Roma concedes 2 goals in a row!
In the second half, Roma managed to slightly recover, scoring a goal through Abraham’s penalty, but Pellegrini’s subsequent goal was not enough to change the outcome.
Pellegrini scored from penalty
After this match, Roma finally completed this challenging stretch of fixtures.
However, their performance against Bologna, Napoli, Juventus, and Atalanta – four strong opponents – was disappointing, with 2 draws, 2 losses, and 0 wins, resulting in only 2 points earned.
2 points in 4 matches
It has been proven that De Rossi is not as capable as Mourinho, as he only took advantage of relatively easier matches.
Therefore, the coaching change for Roma was essentially meaningless.
If Mourinho was the coach….
If Mourinho were coaching, he would likely have achieved good results in these relatively easy matches as well.
With their away loss to Atalanta, Roma’s hopes of finishing in the top five are now hanging by a thread.
As of now, they have played one more match than their competitors and are three points behind them.
Can Roma steal a slot from top 5?
If Atalanta can secure three more points, Roma will definitely miss out on the top five.
If they fail to finish in the top five, Roma’s only chance of qualifying for the Champions League will be under one condition.
Europa League for AS Roma?
If they maintain sixth place and Atalanta fails to finish in the top four, and they also win the Europa League, the sixth-placed team in Serie A will qualify for the Champions League.
