Thursday, December 9, 2021 at 8:42 PM• Jordi Tomasowa • Last update: 20:48

AS Roma booked an important 2-3 victory in the Conference League on Thursday evening at CSKA Sofia. Rick Karsdorp had an important part in the victory with two assists. With the win, the team of coach José Mourinho finished first in Group D with thirteen points. Bodö/Glimt gave up the lead in the group with a 1-1 draw against Zorya Luhansk.

The opening phase was mainly dominated by scanning, but with fifteen minutes on the clock, AS Roma’s first shot on goal was directly hit. After a small scrimmage, Borja Mayoral gave the ball to Karsdorp, who only had to lay wide on Tammy Abraham. For the rush of i Giallorossi it was a breeze to work in an empty goal: 0-1. CSKA Sofia, with Jurgen Mattheij as captain in the base, then had trouble stopping the Romans’ urge to attack.

Halfway through the first half, the visitors had an excellent opportunity to end the game early. However, Gustavo Busatto kept CSKA Sofia going by cleverly tapping a goal from Mayoral out of the right corner. The goalkeeper finally had to give in to a nice goal by the Spanish attacker before half time. Matías Viña passed, after which Mayoral subtly shot in with his heel: 0-2. The striker was close to his second goal of the evening on the stroke of half-time, but this time aimed centimeters over the bar.

AS Roma decided to push through right away in the second half. With a custom cross, Abraham was found again by Rick Karsdorp. The striker hit the goal exactly from the penalty spot: 0-3. Mourinho let the reins loose midway through the second half by substituting Abraham and Mayoral for Nicolò Zaniolo and Eldor Shomurodov. This enabled Hamza Catakovic to score fifteen minutes before the end: 1-3. Substitute Yannick Wildschut briefly brought back the tension in injury time when he scored from outside the box: 2-3.