The day after the painful defeat of Ajax in the quarter finals of the Europa League against AS Roma (1-2), the Italian media are hard for Kjell Scherpen. The goalkeeper, who made his debut in a European context on behalf of Ajax, made a blatant mistake at Lorenzo Pellegrini’s 1-1. The Roma midfielder produced an apparently tenable free kick, but watched Scherpen dive under the ball. Roger Ibañez then shot the Romans to victory with a volley in the final phase.
“Sharpen, what a disaster,” writes La Gazzetta dello Sport. The largest Italian sports newspaper gives the unfortunate goalkeeper a 4.5 score. Also Calciomercato has no sympathy for Scherpen. “The giant baby showed good things with his feet, but made a big mistake.” It meant his first European match for Scherpen, after he was told just before the game that first goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was not fit enough to play.
Despite Scherpen’s bluster La Gazzetta dello Sport also an eye for the clever resurrection of Roma. “A brilliant victory for a great Roma”, is the headline. “It is the victory of the heart, of determination, of the desire to come back and never give up. But above all, it is a crucial victory that allows Roma to look forward to the home game with a view to the semi-finals of the Europa League. League. ” Ajax, which failed to double the score from eleven meters via Dusan Tadic, has to do it in the return next week without Devyne Rensch, who is suspended.
Partly due to the missed penalty kick, Tadic gets off Eurosport a 4.5 as a report mark. “The missed penalty weighs heavily, also because Roma was psychologically grounded at that time.” Tadic was allowed a penalty ten minutes after the break after he himself was knocked out by Ibañez. However, the captain of Ajax failed to choose a corner, so goalkeeper could save goalkeeper Pau López quite easily. According to the sports channel, Scherpen pays “for the cruel law of the goalkeeper error: one mistake is enough to endanger everything.”
Media set concludes that Roma got up at the right time. Paulo Fonseca’s team were eleven yards from a possible collapse and the resulting early close of the season. Fate, or rather the big hands of goalkeeper Pau Lopez, had a different plan and the evening’s script got into the dark. 53rd minute completely upset. A penalty from Tadic was saved and resulted in a positive turnaround. Four minutes later the young Scherpen, Ajax’s third goalkeeper, gave the equalizer to Pellegrini. “
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According to La Reppublica the Italian victory came about with ‘a little luck, but certainly also humility and determination’. “Placement for the semi-final is certainly not a fact yet, but next Thursday the men of Fonseca will face the return in the Stadio Olimpico quite calmly.” Corriere dello Sport goes along with that. “Roma starts well, ruins everything, saves themselves, miraculously returns to the match and finally wins. In a match that seems to be the summary of the entire season, Roma blazes into the Johan Cruijff ArenA and takes a big step forward. towards the semi-finals. ”