AS Roma has lost fourth place in Serie A, thanks to Teun Koopmeiners’ historic night. On Monday evening, a visit to Atalanta Bergamo was lost. The defeat comes hard, a few days after the success against Feyenoord.
Atalanta spoiled with scoring Koopmeiners Feyenoord afterparty Roma
Roma needed 120 minutes to deal with Feyenoord in the quarterfinals of the Europa League, a few days later in Serie A. Against Atalanta, trainer José Mourinho, who coached his hundredth match for Roma, sent quite a few others on the field in. Ola Solbakken and Tammy Abraham appeared at the front, while Roger Ibanez also returned to the starting line-up. Feyenoord executioner Paulo Dybala started on the bench again.
The Argentinian had to save things again in the second half after Mario Pasalic’s opening goal, but this time he failed in that mission. Fifteen minutes before the end, Atalanta ran out to 2-0 via Rafael Tolói. As a result, Lorenzo Pellegrini’s goal in the final phase was only a connecting goal. It was no longer exciting after that, because Teun Koopmeiners punished an error by goalkeeper Rui Patrício: 3-1. The goalie lost control of the ball in a crazy way, after which the Orange international was able to find the empty goal for his eleventh Serie A goal.
Due to the defeat, Roma drops below AC Milan, which now holds fourth place – and therefore a virtual Champions League ticket. Both top teams will meet in the next round of Serie A.
After fifteen years, Seedorf has a successor in acclaimed Koopmeiners
Teun Koopmeiners is completely back. The midfielder was sidelined for weeks with a muscle injury. Against AS Roma he showed that he was completely back to his old self and matched an illustrious predecessor.
At home, Atalanta Bergamo won against the Romans, who eliminated Feyenoord in the Europa League on Thursday evening. However, the home team turned it into an intense fight and bluffed the formation of coach José Mourinho. Koopmeiners executed the verdict himself just before time.
Koopmeiners equaled a special statistic with the hit. It was already the left foot’s seventh goal in Serie A this season. That meant that he was the first Dutchman in fifteen years to score so many goals in one season in Italy. Back then it was Clarence Seedorf. The former international hit seven times for AC Milan.
Incidentally, people at Atalanta were overjoyed on Monday evening anyway. Trainer Gian Piero Gasperini saw his team again involved in the battle for the Champions League tickets. Gasperini commented, “We played against an incredibly strong team, so we needed everything to beat them.”
That worked, Gasperini saw. He was happy with Koopmeiners’ performance against José Mourinho’s side. He said, “It was a very strong match. Our midfield was very solid today. Also offensive. Koopmeiners in particular. He could also make his mark with that hit. A lot is still possible this season.”
