Another disappointing season for Roma comes to an end. The club finishes 7th in Serie A, qualifying in the process for Europe’s newest competition: the UEFA Conference League. Roma were 16 points away from achieving their season’s objective which was qualifying for the Champions League, a testament to how poor the Giallorossi’s form was in 2020/21. This Roma season recap will go through the seven most important matchdays of their campaign, explaining their 7th place finish.
Roma Season Recap
Matchday One: A Nightmare Start for the Roma Season
Roma started their season off in the worst possible fashion. A game that first seemed to be a dull affair between the two sides eventually turned into an automatic loss for Roma. The club was deducted a point because of an administrative error, registering Amadou Diawara (23 years old) as a u-23 player on the team sheet. Surprisingly, that wasn’t the last mistake of this kind for Roma that year. During a Coppa Italia match against Spezia, the club made too many substitutions, resulting in another defeat by forfeit. A sign of things to come during the 2020/21 season.
Matchday Five: AC Milan 3-3 Roma
Despite their rocky opening game, Roma were still yet to lose a game on the pitch leading up to their clash with emerging Serie A favourites AC Milan, who were first and perfect in the league at the time. To many’s surprise, Milan didn’t sweep Roma aside, who gave them a difficult game. The very controversial draw due to both penalty decisions still showed what this Roma side was able to achieve. Paolo Fonseca’s dreams of Champions League qualification seemed attainable.
Matchday Eight: Roma 3-0 Parma
A commanding win against Parma meant Roma broke into the top three in the league. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was at that point one of the best players in Europe in terms of goals and assists, scoring a brace, including an incredible volley in the 32nd minute. The Giallorossi were on a three game win streak and still hadn’t lost on the pitch.
Matchday Nine: Napoli 4-0 Roma
In a game overshadowed by the recent passing of football legend and Napoli icon Diego Maradona, the script called for a resounding win by Napoli. That’s exactly what happened, as Roma were completely outplayed by Lorenzo Insigne and company.
It has to be said that the context wasn’t favourable for a Roma win, but the fact of the matter is that in their second real challenge of the season, the club completely folded and looked miles away from Napoli as a squad. However, Roma still remained between 6th and 3rd place for the next 18 matchdays and looked like a serious top-four contender.
Matchday 27: Parma 2-0 Roma
A shock defeat against 19th placed Parma sent Roma crashing out of the top four for the last time. The club then went on a terrible run of form, only getting five points out of a possible 21 during the next seven games following matchday 27.
Matchday 34: Sampdoria 2-0 Roma
This humiliating loss was the last straw for Roma. Two days after the result, the club announced that they would be parting ways with Paolo Fonseca at the end of the season. A few hours later, the surprise appointment of José Mourinho as a replacement was officialised. Many fans see this as Mourinho’s last chance in club management, considering the outcome of his last few jobs.
Matchday 37: A Derby Win to End the Roma Season
The Derby della Capitale is always an important occasion, no matter the context. In this case, the outcome was crucial for both sides. Lazio needed a win in order to hope for Champions League football next season, and Roma were in position to miss European football altogether. It was also Roma’s day that time, in an anticlimactic game considering the stakes. This win was Roma’s first of the season against the top six. The saying “too little too late” is an understatement in this case, as the three points came in the second to last game.
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