Feyenoord – Roma: Docile Draw At De Kuip (1-1)

For the third time in as many years, Feyenoord and Roma renewed their European rivalry. Led by José Mourinho in their last two encounters, the Italian side had emerged victorious on both occasions, but they were now without their Portuguese coach. Feyenoord were also missing a number of key players, so this turned out to be a match between two somewhat weakened teams.

Tactical analysis and match report by Neel Shelat.

Feyenoord went into this fixture on a ten-match unbeaten streak in domestic fixtures, and yet they find themselves ten points behind the runaway league leaders. Defending the Eredivisie title appears to be an increasingly unrealistic goal for Arne Slot’s side, so the cup competitions seem their best avenue to more silverware at the end of the season. With that in mind, they might have hated to see Roma drawn against them yet again.

A lot has changed for the Italian giants since these teams’ last meeting - most of it in the last month. After a continued lack of progress under José Mourinho, they finally bit the bullet and got him to pack his bags. His replacement, club legend Daniele De Rossi whose only prior senior coaching experience was a disappointing stint at SPAL in Serie B,  seemed a questionable appointment initially but has proven to be anything but so far. His winning streak ended against Inter last weekend but not without a commendable fight, so Roma entered . . .