The incident of remembering life with Kumbulla
It couldn’t have been worse for the evening for the hosts. After only 18 minutes of rolling the ball, Armand Lauriente had time to score a brace to help Sassuolo take a big advantage. The chance to win points was rekindled for Roma when Nicola Zalewski narrowed the gap to half, but it was also quickly extinguished by Kumbulla’s crazy moment just before the break.
The Albanian midfielder showed the immaturity of the 23-year-old when kicking “retaliation” against Berardi right in the penalty area. Red card for Kumbulla and penalty for Sassuolo. It was Berardi, who initiated this “drama” who successfully completed the penalty, re-establishing the gap of 2 goals.
It is only now that it is understood why Kumbulla, a major discovery of Serie A in the 2019/20 season at the age of 20, was bought by Roma from Hellas Verona in the summer, but was only allowed to play 6 matches this season. This. Remember that year, Kumbulla joined Rrahmani to become one of the most “trusted” Albanian central defenders in Serie A. The name is now the core of Napoli towards the first Serie A championship after 33 years of waiting. , and Kumbulla is ‘burying’ his youth in Rome.
The defense is solid, suddenly loose
One of the factors that helps Roma appear regularly in the Top 4 this season is the certainty of the defense. Sassuolo is only the second team to be able to concede Roma more than twice since they lost to Udinese 0-4 in early September last year.
On the day vice-captain Gianluca Mancini rested after a 2-0 victory over Real Betis in the Europa League round of 16, Kumbulla was chosen to pair with Chris Smalling and Roger Ibanez, this three central defenders struggled and struggled. miserable at the speed and agility of Berardi and Lauriente on the Sassuolo side.
The result is a Roma that has not conceded a goal at home in this 2023, having suffered up to 4 goals because of a Kumbulla error link, in the rare time the home team has a personnel adjustment in the defense.
The Kumbulla ‘incident’ made all the terrible efforts of Dybala and Wijnaldum for the rest of the time meaningless as they lost on aggregate 3-4 at the Olimpico.
It is the unevenness of the Roma squad that makes the chances of winning a ticket to the Champions League after 4 seasons of absence is seriously threatened. If Milan beat Salernitana tonight, Roma will once again be knocked out of the Top 4.
And if Roma fails to return to the most prestigious arena in Europe, Mourinho, who has been very frustrated with many troubles both on and off the field in recent times, is likely to leave after only 2 full seasons. ups and downs.
The teacher is more “bad” than the student
It is quite surprising that Kumbulla is the first Roma player to be sent off in Serie A this season. That said, because of their coach, Mourinho has had 3 red cards drawn by the “black kings”. Particularly in the field of earning this card, perhaps Roma players still have to run long to keep up with Mr. Mourinho.
