AS Roma head coach and two-time competition winner José Mourinho felt that his side didn’t deserve the 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League (UEL) knockout play-off clash at Salzburg. The late winner for the Austrian outfit leaves the Portuguese coach and his team now facing a big challenge as they aim to follow up their UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) triumph from last season.
Their preparation was complicated by news that Mourinho’s two main offensive weapons, Paulo Dybala and Tammy Abraham, were doubts for this clash with the latter going off just after 15 minutes in the weekend win over Hellas Verona (1-0). However, with both now confirmed as available, Roma will probably feel even more confident they can overturn the first-leg deficit as they have won all five of their competitive home matches in 2023 ’to-nil’ with one or both of those attackers in the starting XI, losing their only match at Stadio Olimpico this year when both didn’t start!
Salzburg are travelling to Rome in good spirits thanks to Nicolás Capaldo’s 88th-minute header in the reverse fixture, which forms part of a three-game winning run in all competitions. However, the main hero was Philipp Köhn who became the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet against Roma in 34 UEFA competition fixtures!
The visitors have lost just twice on the road this season (W11, D2), a run that includes two 1-1 draws against Chelsea and Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Champions League. Yet, their 4-0 loss at Milan in November marked their seventh away European match without a win (D3, L4), while they have lost each of their previous six away UEL fixtures in a knockout stage.
Players to watch: Roma’s Andrea Belotti will be tasked with adding to his eight goals in his 12 career European appearances, while the visiting Capaldo has found the net beyond the 85th minute in each of his previous two Salzburg outings, with all four of his seasonal goals arriving in the second half.
Hot stat: Salzburg have won 12 of their 18 UEFA competition ties after winning the home first leg, including the last three.
