If Jose Mourinho was still in the dugout at Olympico stadium, AS Roma would probably win against Brighton in the first game of the knockout stage of the Europa League, but since Daniele De Rossi took over, Giallorossi are unstoppable. Roma are fifth in the Italian top flight and have lost just one game in their last 10, which came to league leaders Inter Milan. They won the penalty shootout against Feyenoord in the play-off knockout round and tonight they continued their winning streak by smashing Brighton 4-0 at home. Everybody (Pep Guardiola included) are raving about Roberto De Zerbi’s tactical genialness, but tonight he was humbled by ‘rookie’ De Rossi, who used everything: Brighton’s injury problems, home atmosphere which is much better than the likes of Liverpool or Manchester United, defensive blunders of the guests, their high defensive lines and the fact that he has two great forwards Paolo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku, and all but finished this tie in the first round.Brighton will look at this result as bit of unfair one, since they played quite good in the first half and had a few excellent chances in the first half, one when the score was 0-0 and two more when they were 1-0 down, but the post and the excellent Roma’s youngster Mile Svilar denied them. On the other side was Roma, who were looking to exploit Brighton’s high-pressing, high-defensive line style of play, and after a fantastic deep pass from their own half by Paredes, Dybala as millimeters onside (confirmed by VAR) and scored in the 14th minute. After exploiting the high-defensive line of the English club, Giallorossi used the defensive blunders, and when captain Dunk’s first touch ended badly, it was time for Romelu Lukaku to score the second one, just two minutes before the half.After a 2-0 first-half score, it was hard for anyone to turn around the score against Roma in Rome. Giallorossi have only lost one of their last 23 home games in the UEFA Europa League (W17, D5), a 1-2 defeat to Real Betis in the 2022-23 group stage, since which they have won eight of nine home games in the competition and the streak continued in this match too. Defender Mancini used a brilliant Stephan El Shaarawy cross at the back post to poke the ball beyond Steele for a 3-0 before Cristante also added another to seal the win. Brighton will have a tough task in seven days in England.UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE1/8 finals – first legWednesdaySporting – Atalanta 1-1 (1-1)/Paulinho 17 – Scamacca 39/ThursdayRoma -Brighton 4-0 (2-0)/Dybala 14, Lukaku 43, Mancini 64, Cristante 68/Qarabag – Leverkusen 2-2 (2-0)/Benzia 26, Vieira 45+2 – Wirtz 70, Schick 90+2/Sparta Praha – Liverpool 1-5 (0-3)/Bradley (og) 46 – Mac Allister (og) 6, Nunez 25, Darwin 45+2, Diaz 53, Szoboszlai 90/23:00: (2.00) Olympique Marseille (3.50) Villareal (3.80)23:00: (2.60) Freiburg (3.40) West Ham (2.85)23:00: (1.48) AC Milan (4.30) Slavia Praha (7.00)23:00: (1.60) Benfica (4.00) Rangers (5.70)***odds are subject to change***
