Roma – Athletic, Getty Images September 26, 2024, 11:58 p.m

The Italian Roma last season took the sixth place in the Serie A draw and, accordingly, won the right to participate in the UEFA Europa League in the new campaign. Thus, during his transfer from the Catalan Girona, Ukrainian striker Artem Dovbyk found himself in a situation where he was moving from a team participating in the Champions League to a representative of a lower level of the competition.

Bad or not, judging by the start of the new season, where the “wolves” have already managed to say goodbye to the head coach Daniele De Rossi due to unsuccessful results and invite Ivan Jurych to replace him, it may be good that the Romans did not end up in the main European competition in the end. However, there are enough high-level opponents in the Europa League, as well as Basque Athletic, against whom Roma was supposed to start this year’s international campaign at the Stadio Olimpico.

You can expect any game from the Basques in away matches this season, but this time everything was very modest in the performance of Ernesto Valverde’s team in the first half. Kermanych himself probably did not like how much the lack of ideas in the attack in the performance of his team was glaring. As a result, after several throws into the foreign penalty area with unsuccessful shots by Ignacy and Guruseta, the visitors gave control to their opponents.

To say that Roma at the same time showed some amazing football up front would also be inappropriate. They looked for Dovbyk with long passes, he had to cling to them, and then the rest of the partners would come with the second pace of the attack. We should not be surprised by such a tactic, but when it was finally abandoned, a scored goal immediately appeared. In the 32nd minute, Dybala played to Angelinho on the left, and Angelinho made a well-aimed pass to the head of the Ukrainian at the far post.

Obviously, it was practically impossible for Atlético to start successfully from the spot with such a game, so the guests played until the break and Valverde had to come up with something during the rest period. But it turned out that Yurich “invented” it instead of the coach of the rival team. Roma started to play from a deep defense, lost the initiative on the ball and simply fought back. Or she tried to do it while her opponents excused her for defensive mistakes.

In the 81st minute, the decision was finally made to replace Dovbyk, but four minutes after that, Artem might not have been enough in his own penalty area, when Berenger’s cross from a set piece from the left flank at the far post was unimpeded by Nunes on the head of Aitor Paredes, who from a few meters to the goal, he simply could not miss. That’s how three points for a clear advantage turn into one point if you start clinging to the result.

In the next round, Italian Roma will play away against Elfsborg, and Basque Athletic will host Dutch AZ Alkmaar.

Roma — Athletic 1:1
Goals: Dovbyk, 32 — A. Paredes, 85

Roma: Svilar – Mancini, Ndika, Hermoso – Celik (Abdulhamid, 71), Kone (L. Paredes, 81), Cristante, Baldantsi (Pizilli, 63), Angelinho – Dybala (Sule, 46), Dovbyk (Shomurodov, 81).

Athletic: Aguirrezabala – Gorosabel (De Marcos, 69), Vivian (Nunez, 80), A. Paredes, Berchiche – Prados (Herrera, 60), Galarreta – I. Williams, U. Gomez (Berenger, 69), Gialo (N. Williams , 60) — Guruseta.

Warnings: Kone, Baldanzi – Gorosabel, Berchiche, De Marcos, N. Williams