Edin Dzeko on the goal trail
No player scored more Champions League goals in 2018 than Edin Dzeko, who fired Roma to last season’s semis with an incredible comeback against Messi & Co. Now he’s hoping to inspire more miracles at the Stadio Olimpico
He fired Roma to last season’s semis, now he wants Euro glory
Edin Dzeko loves upsetting the odds. He fired Wolfsburg to their only Bundesliga crown. He dragged Manchester City to level terms in their 2011-12 Premier League title-decider against QPR, before Sergio Aguero provided the big finish. He hit 10 goals in 10 qualifiers to lead Bosnia-herzegovina to their first ever World Cup. And last season, with Roma, he kickstarted one of the most astonishing comebacks in 60-plus years of European Cup football. Just as unexpectedly, as his 33rd birthday nears, Dzeko is among the deadliest strikers in Europe. Nobody scored more Champions League goals in 2018 than Dzeko, the Roma marksman’s 10 strikes putting him top of the charts with Robert Lewandowski and ahead of such A-list stars as Lionel Messi (nine) and Mohamed Salah (eight). What’s more, he was consistent. He propelled the Giallorossi past Shakhtar Donetsk on away goals, then netted in both legs against Barcelona and both legs against Liverpool as Roma progressed to the 2017-18 semi-finals, before adding another five in this season’s group stage.
When Fourfourtwo asks Dzeko if he’s underrated, as his former Man City boss Roberto Mancini has implied, the Bosnian demurs. Overrated, underrated – it’s not for him to decide, he says. But it is nonetheless possible that his comparatively low-profile status allows him to take any blasé opponents by surprise.
Perhaps that’s why Roma were able to overcome a three-goal deficit in their unforgettable Champions League quarter-final tie with Barça last year. Dzeko and friends needed to win 3-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in order to do the seemingly impossible – “a one per cent chance”, he says – but his sixth-minute strike set them on their way and Barcelona on their way out. The Italians tried to repeat the trick against Liverpool in the last four but left themselves a tad too much to do, recovering from 5-0 down at Anfield only to lose 7-6 on aggregate.
Reaching the semis again is a tall order, Dzeko knows, but Roma do have a chance. Having escaped Group G in the shadow of Real Madrid, Roma escaped a nightmarish Last 16 draw: faced with the prospect of drawing one of Europe’s biggest hitters (not that they’d fear Barça any more), the Giallorossi were instead paired with Porto.
Roma won’t underestimate them, of course, as if anyone knows the power of surprise, it’s Dzeko. But with the goals flowing like water in the Trevi Fountain, he’s at home in the Italian capital.
Did you watch a lot of Serie A as a kid, then? Who was your team? I did. My favourite team was Milan, and [Andriy] Shevchenko was my favourite player. I looked up to him. I don’t think our styles are similar, though. It’s just that he was the guy who always excited me.
You’ve entered the history books already as one of Roma’s all-time top goalscorers. Are you in the best form of your career? At some points. In the Champions League, for sure – I’ve played more matches here and scored the most goals of my career. I played in the Champions League with City and Wolfsburg as well, but we reached the semi-finals at Roma and I’ve scored 15 goals in three and a half years, so it’s been my best form in that competition. Two years ago I top-scored in the league and Europa League, too. So... yes, definitely.
You know how it goes with us players: when you’re older, everyone expects you to decline. But I feel good. I train a lot, and the hard work is now paying off. I was never the quickest player in the team and as the years pass there’s more chance of injury or losing pace, so I work hard to avoid injury and give my best, even though I’ll be 33 in March.
Two more goals and you’ll equal Francesco Totti’s record of 17 in Champions League matches for Roma. What is it that means you thrive in that competition? I’m always playing, and the team has done really well in the last year and a half. We reached the semi-finals, so there were more matches and more possibilities to score goals. Last year was amazing for the players, the club and the fans, and this year we’ve started OK as well.
I’ve played in the Champions League in three of my four years here – I’m not sure Roma did that before, playing in it so regularly. In that other year we were unlucky to go out [in the play-off round] to Porto, getting three red cards in 180 minutes. If it wasn’t for that, we’d have played in the Champions League every year. That’s good for the club.
Roma manager Eusebio Di Francesco has said he reckons you play better at night – what do you make of that? I don’t think it’s just me! Ask players if they would rather play at 3pm when it’s 25-30 degrees or at 9pm when it’s fresher and a much lower temperature, and I think everyone would go for the second option. It’s true what the boss says: I wish we always played in the evening!
Roberto Mancini, your former manager at Man City, recently said that you’ve been one of the best strikers in Europe for years now. Do you think you’re still underrated? I don’t think about it. One player may be popular and another less so – it doesn’t bother me. I just do my job. Mancini knows me well, as we were together at City, but I don’t know if I’m overrated or underrated.
Are you still in touch? Yeah, we’ve spoken a few times here. It was a dream for him to take the Italy job and I want him to do well. Even if I was angry with him sometimes when I didn’t play, our relationship was good. Italy have a new team with a lot of young players, and I hope they can do well.
We’ll come back to your time at Man City later, but first we need to talk about Roma’s Champions League quarter-final comeback against Barcelona last season. Was that a career highlight? Definitely – for all of us. No one expected that after we lost 4-1 in the first leg. And you’re playing against Barcelona: first you have to score three goals past them, and then make sure you don’t concede.
I think everything went our way. We scored immediately, which is important because it gives you energy and the crowd gets behind you even more. I had never seen Barcelona in such a difficult position as they were in that match – they weren’t themselves, though that was mostly because we pressed them very high so they couldn’t play their game. We scored a second, and after that you start to believe. At 1-0 it’s still a long way. But after Daniele [De Rossi] scored the penalty to make it 2-0, I really believed we could do it.
It took the second goal for you to believe? Yes, because at 1-0 we had to score two more goals, obviously, which isn’t easy. And we couldn’t concede. After the second goal there was still half an hour to play, and in half an hour anything can happen. We just kept playing as we had done – aggressive and high up the pitch – and hoped the goal would come, which it did from Kostas [Manolas].
Was it hard to remain calm and finish the job at 3-0? We knew we were playing for the semi-finals, which maybe none of us had reached – just [Aleksandar] Kolarov, I think, with Man City two years ago. We had to defend together. Barcelona had one chance at the end, but nothing serious.
Be honest: did you think it was over after the first leg? Yes. I thought there was maybe a one per cent chance. When I scored there it was 3-0, and I wouldn’t say I was confident but I did believe at that point. Then the fourth goal killed me. I was devastated when we conceded that. I thought, ‘Now it is difficult’. But football is crazy.
How special was it in the context of your career? You also played a big part in Man City’s dramatic title-clinching win over QPR and helped Bosnia-herzegovina to reach their first World Cup. It was definitely one of the top moments, although it was different to the one with QPR because there we were fighting for the league title
“EVERYTHING WENT OUR WAY – WE SCORED IMMEDIATELY, THE CROWD GOT BEHIND US AND WE STOPPED BARCELONA FROM PLAYING”
and everything happened in the space of about two minutes, but here we had 90 minutes to change the match and we did it. That was one of the greatest games Roma have ever played, and to come back from three goals down to Barcelona is even harder.
Was that the loudest you’ve heard a football stadium? Yeah. The stadium was packed before the game even though we’d lost the first leg 4-1, so the atmosphere was good. But when you score at the beginning of the game, people go crazier. It gave us more energy on the pitch and gave them more energy to support us.
Do you have regrets about how the Liverpool tie went? Sure. It was definitely the first leg [a 5-2 defeat at Anfield] that meant we didn’t reach the final. We scored six goals in the semi-final and still went out, which is mad. We lost everything in that game.
Was that especially annoying for you as a striker? You scored all of those goals but still lost. I’d prefer not to score but still go to the final.
Do you think you could have gone all the way? Yeah. We beat them 4-2 at home and scored two goals in Liverpool – that’s not easy. I don’t know who else has scored six in a semi-final and gone out. The problem was that we didn’t think about the second game during the first. We had to think about the full 180 minutes, not just the first 90. We made too many mistakes during the first leg, and with the players Liverpool have, they’ll punish you.
Was that Roma’s big chance? It’ll be difficult to do it again, although no one expected it last season either. Never say never, but that was a big chance to get to the final.
Francesco Totti is still involved with the club after retirement, now acting as a director. What’s it like having him around? He’s here every day. I’d prefer it if he was younger and could still play, so I could score more goals! We didn’t have many matches together, but I think we did well. The only regret was not playing with him in his best years. As a striker, you’ll score more goals with a player like that. Do you joke about breaking some of his Roma records? No, we haven’t talked about that. Records are there to be broken, by me or someone else, but I don’t think anyone will ever break his goals record at Roma [307 in 786 games].
How do you look back on your time at Man City? I was there for four and a half years, I won some trophies – after City had waited 44 years – and I had a great time, so it was a special period in my career. I still follow City when I can. They feel like my club, and it was a pleasure to play in the best league in the world. You want to play with the best and compete with the best, so I wanted to go to England.
What makes you say the Premier League is the best in the world? The best players are there. The tempo is different. Everything about that league is the best – for example, there are about six teams that can win it. You can never say that you’ll win an easy game in England.
Are you proud to be a part of City’s historic 2011-12 league title? Even though we played good football all season, to win the league like that in stoppage time made it even crazier, and I was just happy to be a part of it. I remember arriving in January 2011, and it’s amazing to see how much Manchester City have grown as a club since then. To be up there with the very best, they’ll need to win the Champions League.
You consider yourself a City fan, then – is that the same with every club you’ve played for? Yeah. I follow Wolfsburg because we made history, too. I was there for three and a half years and we won the club’s only Bundesliga title.
“MAYBE WE ALL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE EASY AGAINST QPR – THEN THEY SCORED TWICE AND MANCINI WAS SWEARING AT EVERYONE”
Looking back at that momentous QPR title-clincher, can you talk us through your memories of how it unfolded? Maybe we all thought it would be an easy game. Win at home and you are champions of England. I was on the bench, and I remember when [Pablo] Zabaleta scored we thought, ‘OK, this will be even easier now’. But then they equalised out of nothing. Then they got a red card and perhaps we were too open at the back, as they had a counter-attack and scored to make it 2-1.
On the bench, Mancini was swearing at everyone about how we had conceded that second goal. He called me over and put me on straight away. We had some chances, but nothing special, because we knew what was at stake and the pressure was too high.
Somehow we scored that second goal, which gave us a little bit more belief. The time was flying and we still had to score another, so when I equalised I just ran back to the halfway line, so we would have a few more seconds to try to get another. We were lucky to score the third, because we had only one attack to do it in – and Sergio Aguero scored. It was lucky, but well deserved in the end.
What was going through your mind when you came on? I knew I just had to do my job: to score. That was it. I didn’t think about anything else.
You mentioned that the players were feeling the pressure – did you feel that, too? Of course. Everything was on a plate for us and we gave it away too easily. But with the pressure on we still tried, even if, maybe, no one believed.
What are your memories of Aguero’s winner? I remember it as a big relief, more than anything. Nothing else – just relief. We knew we’d done it: after all of that pressure and stress in the game, and the final 20 minutes, when Sergio scored it was just... I can’t even explain it. What were the celebrations like afterwards? I can’t remember exactly. We went on an open-top bus the day after, but that night we celebrated together and enjoyed the evening.
Do you keep a memento from special matches? Your shirt, maybe? It’s not as if I have special match shirts. I have all of the shirts in which I’ve played, for City, Wolfsburg and now Roma, which I keep at home. That year we had shirts with ‘Champions 12’ on the back, which all of the players signed, so I do have that.
It was a huge moment for Man City in their process of overtaking United to become the best club in Manchester. You also scored twice when City beat United 6-1. Was there a sense at the time that the derby result was a big part of City’s story that season? To beat them 6-1 in their own ground was a humiliation, especially in a derby, when it’s even worse. It all happened so quickly – I think we got three goals in the last five minutes or something like that. Maybe that game gave us more power and energy to think we could do it at the end; that we were the team to win it that year.
Beating United with Alex Ferguson, one of the greatest managers in history, was a special moment for us and the fans. It gave us an even more special relationship, because they loved us more.
It’s amazing to think how many good games and special moments we had in the four and a half years I was at the club: beating United, winning two titles, plus two cups and the Community Shield as well. And United always had that flag which counted the years City were without a title, making fun of our fans. After the 6-1 they were quiet.
Do you still feel any rivalry with United today, then? Do you enjoy seeing them lose? No, I don’t really see it like that. When City play, I want them to win, but when United play it’s not as if I support the team that they’re up against – I just don’t care.
And do you see yourself returning to England one day? I don’t know. I don’t think about it. You never know what will happen tomorrow, but I’m here now and have one and a half years left on my contract. We’ll see what happens. For now, I’m happy to be at Roma.