Arne Slot would have thought it special if something in AS Roma’s playing style could surprise him. If Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho found something that his Feyenoord could not anticipate. He played fifty-five matches with his team this season, before the final of the Conference League this Wednesday evening in the Albanian capital Tirana. The duel that should yield Feyenoord the fourth European top prize in club history.
Feyenoord is dominant in the first quarter of the match. It uses the style of play to which it has become accustomed during the season. Move the ball quickly, preferably forward. The game for which the team from Rotterdam – and trainer Slot – have often been praised in the past year.
Like a cunning team, opponent AS Roma insists on something from about minute twenty-five. Not with big steps, rather dribbling. The umpteenth useful ball conquest in your own half or midfield, then lurking at the space that the opponent has left behind.
Feyenoord needs more fouls. If an AS Roma player crawls in front of it, then a hand on the shoulder is the only solution that remains.
It is not a surprise, this game image. In previews of the final against AS Roma, the focus was mainly on trainer Mourinho. Acclaimed football brain. The ultimate starting point is your own defensive qualities. From there, the game must be disrupted and the opponent bluffed.
He is a winner, the Portuguese, with his honors list as solid proof. Of the fifteen finals he played with FC Porto and Internazionale for this Wednesday, Mourinho won twelve. The last highlight was the final battle of the Europa League in 2017, when he completely paralyzed Ajax’s then much-praised attacking game with Manchester United and won.
Roman goal
Minute 32. Austrian defender Gernot Trauner, who has been a stable factor in the back of Feyenoord this season, misjudges a long ball from a Roma defender. His bald head only grazed the ball, allowing the Italian to take Nicolò Zaniolo into the penalty area. The ball bounces off his chest, just a little too far, it seems. But goalkeeper Justin Bijlow, who has returned from an injury, cannot reach it. With a smooth foot movement, Zaniolo taps the ball past him. AS Roma is ahead.
Like a guard, Mourinho calls the cheering substitutes back into the dugout after the goal. He knows that the most important part of the game is yet to come. Now that the opponent is going to attack even more, his defensive plan must stand.
Where Feyenoord can win the fourth European prize, the second serious international prize is at stake for AS Roma. Because the Conference League, the third European level after the Champions League and the Europa League, has become a serious tournament in just one season. This was also a surprise for the European football association UEFA, as shown by the choice of the stadium in Tirana as the location for the final battle. Feyenoord could have met the capacity of more than 22,000 spectators with its own supporters alone.
“We did not think there would be so much interest in this tournament,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin. With Feyenoord and AS Roma, according to him, there were two teams in the final that could participate in the Champions League.
The idea behind the tournament was to create more matches for more teams. Many clubs from the European football periphery made their international debuts, but in the end two clubs emerge with the necessary experience in Europe.
tricks
After the disappointment of the first half, Slot has to recharge his team for the second part for the 56th and last time this season. Something that seems to have worked, the energy is back in the first minutes after rest. Trauner hits the post from a rehearsed corner. A few minutes later, AS Roma’s Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio saved a smooth strike from left back Tyrell Malacia, again with help from the goal post.
But where the number of minutes to be played decreases, the frustration on the Feyenoord side grows, also with trainer Slot. About tricks of Roma players that slow down the game. The seconds preceding a goalkeeper’s kick are like minutes. Together with colleague Mourinho, he is in conversation with the fourth man for almost the entire game.
The Portuguese plays his favorite part. Peps up where necessary, challenges, puts his team on edge. In a team without really big names, the attention also goes more quickly to the trainer. At AS Roma there is no longer Francesco Totti, not even Daniele de Rossi. Players who belonged to the international football top, or at least rub against it.
It is a club without a trophy cabinet, Mourinho himself said before the game. AS Roma won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1961, a distant ancestor of the Europa League. Three national championships and a handful of cups followed, the last of which was the Coppa Italia in 2008.
Mourinho will have seen it as a challenge to fill that closet as he started his first season with AS Roma last summer. One that only he could handle.