The Dutch morning newspapers mourn the elimination of Feyenoord in the Europa League by AS Roma. Just before the end of regular time, Paulo Dybala brilliantly pulled an extension for the Romans out of the fire. Stephan El Shaarawy and Lorenzo Pellegrini then dealt the final blow: 4-1.
“So close and yet so far away,” it reads General Journal after the painful elimination of Feyenoord in the quarterfinals of the Europa League. “It became a fight that the Feyenoord players never have to deal with in their own country. One with all the trimmings.” According to the morning paper, the Rotterdammers had to ‘survive’ in Stadio Olimpico. “Git your teeth and don’t let yourself be sidelined against a club that can bring an Argentinian world champion off the bench to make a difference. That fighting on, around and over the edge was part of the entire match with Arne Slot’s team.”
“Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered, Julius Caesar said more than two thousand years ago The Telegraph. “Arne Slot hoped to say it after the most famous man of the Roman Empire in a memorable place. But after ten matches in the Europa League, it is again José Mourinho who has stopped the emperor of the Dutch trainers’ guild.”
The newspaper saw the Roma trainer again claim a leading role. “Between the companies, Mourinho was again waving his arms in the air, making a noise and becoming furious if his team conceded a single free kick. It already earned him a warning from Taylor before the break.”
Also Fidelity saw ‘the European dream of Feyenoord shatter after a hot evening in Rome’. The team from Rotterdam failed to take revenge for last year’s lost Conference League final. Roma was then 1-0 too strong in Tirana. According to the newspaper, the score on Thursday evening ‘slided every involved spectator to the edge of the seat’. “An intense match that contained all the accompanying ingredients: emotions, tension, riots, bullying, theater after alleged fouls, grim duels, dirty kicks, good football at times, many opportunities.”
Feyenoord was again tested against the laws of international football during the return against Roma. Fidelity concludes that only Orkun Kökçü, Lutsharel Geertruida and Dávid Hancko passed that test. “Giménez, the wingers Idrissi and Jahanbakhsh and also the Pool Szymanski succumbed to the physical violence of AS Roma, just like last week in Rotterdam.”