Roma lost the 1984 European cup final to Liverpool before fellow Serie A side Inter Milan got the better of them in the UEFA Cup seven years later.
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AS Roma will play Feyenoord in the Europa Conference League final at the Air Albania Stadium on Wednesday night. Roma boss Jose Mourinho will be hoping to conclude a memorable debut season at La Lupa with a trophy. Feyenoord could become the first team to have lifted all three of Europe’s current club trophies, while the Italian outfit would be seeking their first European title, having twice lost previously. Giallorossi lost the 1984 European cup final to Liverpool before fellow Serie A side Inter Milan got the better of them in the UEFA Cup seven years later. While both the competitions have been revamped and form the top two tiers of continental competition-the Champions and Europa League- UEFA’s newest addition , the Europa Conference League, was inaugurated less than 12 months ago.
A first look at Wednesday’s stage ?
? Arena Kombetare, Tirana ??
#ASRoma #UECL #UECLfinal pic.twitter.com/8PdPlzE8GI— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) May 23, 2022
Roma arrive in Tirana having finished their domestic season with a flourish, thrashing Torino 3-0 on Saturday. Tammy Abraham netted a brace to take his tally to 27 for the season across all competitions and Lorenzo Pellegrini’s penalty sealed their Europa League qualification for next season. Mourinho’s side finished sixth in the league standing with 63 points from 38 games. The Portuguese tactician is a cup-specialist having won both the Champions and Europa League and is now aiming to become the first manager in history to win all three UEFA club competitions.Â
After comfortably cruising through to the last -16, La Lupa edged past Vitesse at the first knockout stage, before securing a 5-2 aggregate win over Bodo/Glimt to go through to the last-4 of the competition. Leicester City proved to be Roma’s toughest opponents thus far, but the Italian outfit managed to book a ticket to the final with a 2-1 aggregate win. Abraham scored the decisive goal at Stadio Olimpico after the first leg ended 1-1 in England.
On the other hand, Feyenoord booked their place in the inaugural final after a hard-fought 3-2 aggregate win over Marseille in the semi-finals. The Dutch side are no strangers to European glory having won the European Cup final against Celtic in 1970 and the UEFA Sups of 1974 and 2002. This will be their fourth European final, having secured the trophies on the three previous occasions. Undefeated since the start of the tournament, the Eredivisie club have found the net 28 times in their 12 Conference League games to date-one more than Roma. Since booking their place in the title-decider, Feyenoord have gone on to secure a third-placed finish domestically.Â
Read more: Serie A: AC Milan wins first title in 11 years
Roma will be boosted by the return of Nicolo Zaniolo after recovering from injury. The striker appeared as a substitute last time out. Therefore Eldor Shomurodov should drop out of the side that started against Torino, while Jordan Veretout’s spot in midfield is also vulnerable to the claims of Bryan Cristante. Due to a hamstring problem, midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan is unavailable.
As for Feyenoord, they could lineup with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Genk Loanee Cyriel Dessers starting up front. The Belgian moved clear as the Conference League top scorer by netting his ninth and tenth goals of the campaign in the semi-final. Meanwhile goalkeeper Justin Bijklow has been sidelined with injury.
Roma possible starting lineup: Patricio, Mancini, smalling, Ibanez, Karsdorp, Cristante, Oliveira, Zalewski, Pellegrini, Zaniolo, Abraham
Feyenoord possible starting lineup: Marciano, Geertruida, Trauner, Senesi, Malacia, Aursnes, Kokcu, Nelson, Til, Sinisterra, Desserts.
The final fixture between AS Roma and Feyenoord will take place at Air Albania stadium and it will kick-off at 12:30 am IST on Wednesday, May 26.
The match will be live streamed on the SonyLIV app and website, and the JioTV mobile app. Meanwhile football fans in India can also enjoy the action on TV networks, as the competition is telecasted on the Sony Ten network.
