Europa League, Sevilla-Roma ends 5-2 on penalties. But the Giallorossi future starts from here

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BUDAPEST – A cup faded on penalties. Again them, the cursed penalties, like with Liverpool, that night in May 1984, at the Olimpico, and then it was the Champions Cup. And yet this time from eleven meters for Roma in a certain sense it is once again the “Big Ears Cup” to fly away, because on the Puskas Arena lawn we also have the qualification for the next Champions League, which really would have been the turning point ( for prestige and income) which both the club and Josè Mourinho were aiming for. And then the double mockery multiplies bitterness and regrets, and opens more than one question on the future of the Giallorossi.

European double

Of course, it must be said that Special One has put the Giallorossi back “in the center of the European village” (an expression dear to another ex Roma coach, the Frenchman Rudi Garcia), thanks to the two consecutive continental finals, the Conference one won in Tirana last year against Feyenoord, and that of the Europa League against Sevilla. A heritage of credibility that enhances the Roma “brand” well beyond the almost 20 million euros collected by the club during the journey in the second continental competition. However, it is obvious that – as repeatedly highlighted – the disproportion compared to the Champions League is considerable (we are talking about a jackpot which in 2021/22 was 465 million, compared to the 2.02 billion of the Cup that Inter and Manchester City will play on 10 June in Istanbul).

And without forgetting that the knockout in Budapest also precludes Roma from competing in the European Super Cup, another non-trivial showcase. Numbers and reflections that increase the bitterness for Mancini’s own goal, Smalling’s crossbar, mistakes from the penalty spot by Mancini and Ibanez himself, the recriminations for the uncertainties of referee Taylor (against whom Mourinho himself had a heavy outburst in the belly of the Puskas Arena, after the match).

How to restart

The heart of this Rome, the Rome of the Friedkins and Thiago Pinto, the general manager increasingly on a collision course with Jose Mourinho, is even more after the night in Budapest, precisely the Special One. Centralizer, hedonist, with a huge ego, but still capable of giving a recognized identity to the team, which recognizes its demiurge in him, just as the Roma people have found their leader in the Portuguese.

Predictable, visas Mourinho’s career and status; but it is precisely now that the club – launched in an ever more decisive way towards the construction of the new stadium of its own property in the Pietralata area – will have to demonstrate that it knows how to structure itself in a broader and more complex way, somehow emerging from this Mourinhana hegemony that is resource, but in the long run also a limit.