At the kick-off of the European adventure on August 5 against FC Dundalk (2-2) no one could have foreseen that Vitesse would play fourteen matches in Europe and make such an impression. The Conference League matches brought out the best in Letsch’s team, which managed to reach all kinds of milestones. Vitesse thus qualified for the first time ever via the preliminary round for a European main tournament and the Arnhem team managed to winter in Europe for the first time in 130-year club history.
Reaching the last eight, which would have been the next unique achievement for Vitesse, turned out to be too ambitious. Where the Arnhem team managed to create countless opportunities at home against AS Roma, but did not have their sights sharp, the team of coach José Mourinho, who plays football purely on results, was able to give away almost nothing this time.
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Vitesse wanted to play football, but failed to find a gap. Closest to a goal was Adrian Grbic, who shot a beautiful free kick in the early stages, but was caught by Rui Patricio. Just like before against other renowned opponents such as Anderlecht, Tottenham Hotspur, Stade Rennais and Rapid Wien, Vitesse managed to bite off an extremely negative and arrogant home team in Rome. At Vitesse there were base places this time for Riechedly Bazoer, who had reclaimed his place through the suspension of Dominik Oroz, and Daan Huisman, who played in the place of the unfit Matus Bero.
AS Roma coach José Mourinho shakes hands with Tammy Abraham.
Ⓒ ANP/HH
It was a tactical joust and a dragon of a match to watch, but Letsch saw that his team was extremely mature against the renowned opponent. This time Mourinho had included big names such as Abraham, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Chris Smalling in the base, but despite the well-filled Stadio Olimpico (more than 40,000 spectators), the home team had absolutely no inclination to make a football show of it.
AS Roma thought after the 1-0 victory in Arnhem they could get into the quarterfinals by training Vitesse’s game for ninety minutes, but had not counted on Maximilian Wittek. The German left back of Vitesse has a mighty shot in the legs and proved that again in the second half against AS Roma by pushing the ball hard into the goal behind Patricio. Already the fifth Conference League goal for Wittek, who is therefore the European top scorer of the Arnhem team.
AS Roma suddenly had to play football, but the well-organized Vitesse gave little away. The biggest chance was for substitute Bryan Cristante, but Vitesse goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen got a hand behind it. On the other side, Grbic was much too nonchalant about a good shooting opportunity.
The clock was ticking and AS Roma threatened to face overtime in the run-up to the city derby against Lazio, but in the 90th minute it still went completely wrong for Vitesse. Goal scorer Wittek let substitute ex-Feyenoord player Rick Karsdorp walk out of his back. The attackingly strong back gave the ball well to Abraham, who brought the Roman tifosi into ecstasy at the last minute and shattered Vitesse’s European dream.