Stunning victory
Roma reaches Champions League semifinals, besting Barcelona
ROME — With his arms held out wide and his mouth gaping open, Kostas Manolas started running and yelling uncontrollably. Then he patted his chest and was mobbed by his Roma teammates.
Manolas, a centerback not renowned for attacking skills, had just scored one of the most memorable goals in the Italian club’s history.
His header from a corner in the 82nd minute on Tuesday put Roma into the Champions League semifinals and knocked out five-time champion Barcelona following one of the most extraordinary comebacks the competition has ever seen.
Roma won 3-0 to overturn a three-goal deficit and advance on the away-goals rule, having entered the game as a massive underdog after losing the first leg of their quarterfinal 4-1 against a Lionel Messi-led team that was one of the big favorites to win the competition.
“I don’t care about becoming part of Roma’s history,” said Manolas. “I’m just happy that the squad has reached the Champions League semifinals by beating a great team like Barcelona.
“In the first leg they denied us two penalties but tonight we showed that Roma can play with and beat anyone.”
The atmosphere inside Stadio Olimpico was deafening as the host unexpectedly dominated.
Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco acknowledged before the match that his team needed a “miracle” to advance, and it got the start it needed when Edin Dzeko controlled a lofted pass between two defenders in the sixth minute and poked in his sixth goal in this season’s competition.
Then near the hour mark, Dzeko earned a penalty that Daniele De Rossi converted to set the stage for Manolas’ late header.
“It is for moments like this that it is so beautiful to live for these colors,” recently retired Roma captain Francesco Totti tweeted, adding: “Daje
Roma!” (“Go Roma”). Barca’s usually deadly twopronged attack of Messi and Luis Suarez hardly threatened as Roma dominated possession for long stretches and stifled the Catalan club with high-tempo tactics.
Roma capitalized on its aerial threat through Dzeko and Patrik Schick while its welldrilled defense forced Barcelona into a series of uncharacteristic misplaced passes.
“They showed attitude and for whatever reason we didn’t know how to respond or to make chances,” Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets said. “For that reason they were better in all aspects tonight.”
This marks the first time Roma has reached the last four since it lost the 1984 final to Liverpool on penalties in its own stadium — and it’s the third straight year that Barcelona has been eliminated at this stage.
“It’s a possibility that this might be my last game in the Champions League but right now this is hard for all the team, all of us,” Barcelona captain Andrea Iniesta said after playing in a record-setting 22nd Champions League quarterfinal.
“We so wanted to win this tournament but we’ve failed to do so again.
“It’s really tough. It seems untrue. Very hard to accept. With the advantage we had we went out because we really did things badly. The Champions League punishes you for that.”
Liverpool also reached the semifinals after recovering from conceding a goal inside two minutes against Manchester City to win 2-1 thanks to second-half strikes by former Roma striker Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.
Only two clubs had previously overturned at least a three-goal first-leg deficit in the Champions League — Deportivo La Coruna beat AC Milan 4-0 after losing the opening leg 4-1 in the 2004 quarterfinals and Barcelona routed Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 after losing the first game 4-0 in last season’s last 16.
“When you lose a match like this you think about everything that went wrong. You analyze things,” Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said through a translator when asked if he would take the blame for the loss.
“We had a great opportunity but we were just not good enough to seize it.”
Roma captain De Rossi set Dzeko on his way for Roma’s first goal before the big Bosnian striker muscled off defenders to shoot past Marc-Andre ter Stegen with his left foot.
Suarez became so frustrated at his lack of supply from midfield that he slammed both hands on the pitch on one occasion.
Dzeko was at it again after the break with a show of brute force, shrugging off Gerard Pique and Umtiti to approach the goal. Pique then grabbed Dzeko’s left arm and tugged the striker to the ground.
French referee Clement Turpin awarded a penalty and showed Pique a yellow card before De Rossi confidently fired the spot-kick inside the right post past Ter Stegen, despite the German correctly guessing the trajectory.
Ter Stegen was again helpless when Manolas headed inside the far post.
Valverde waited until the final 10 minutes to use all three of his substitutions — Andre Gomes, Ousmane Dembele and Paco Alcacer.
“We had enough experience on the pitch to solve things,” the manager said, before adding: “I thought.”