So much of Brighton & Hove Albion’s first European adventure has been bundles of fun, but darkness consumed Roberto De Zerbi’s team and their travelling fans in Rome this week.
Two supporters were stabbed on Wednesday night, followed 24 hours later by a crushing 4-0 defeat against Roma in the first leg of a Europa League last-16 tie.
That result has reduced the second leg at the Amex Stadium next Thursday to a horrible conclusion for a continental campaign which had been full of joy and hope.
Thankfully, the fans involved avoided serious injury when they were attacked leaving a bar, although they needed hospital treatment for leg wounds.
One of them still attended the match, walking with the aid of a crutch — an act of devotion which turned him into a social-media hero. The pain of his visit to the historic Italian capital will not have been helped by the anguish of watching his team crumble at the Stadio Olimpico.
A grim night on the pitch took another sinister turn during the half-time interval when the Premier League club responded on their official X account, formerly Twitter, to bottles, coins and lighters being thrown into the ground’s away section by home supporters and urged the authorities to take action.
We are aware of the bottles, coins and lighters being thrown by home supporters into the away end. We have reported to UEFA and Italian Police and requested immediate action be taken.
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) March 7, 2024
De Zerbi’s side were already two goals behind by then, architects of their downfall with dismal defending. The pattern then repeated in the second half, condemning Brighton’s head coach to a humiliating return to his homeland.
It was not supposed to end like this. Not after an away campaign in the group stage that was notable for memorable nights in some of Europe’s finest cities and football theatres.
The Stade Velodrome in the south of France can be intimidating, even on a balmy evening in early October, but a 2-0 deficit at half-time against Marseille was salvaged by two late goals in what ended as a 2-2 draw. Next stop, the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam, where the once-formidable Ajax were beaten 2-0 a month later, then a 1-0 win against AEK Athens at the AEK Arena, the venue for this season’s Europa Conference League final.
And so to Rome and fighting talk from Pascal Gross, sitting alongside De Zerbi, at the pre-match press conference at the Olimpico on Wednesday.
“We are already writing history,” said the German midfielder. “It’s our first knockout game in European football. It has not been easy to get here. We will be humble. We are full of confidence and looking forward to playing the game.
“It’s a beautiful city, I was here one year ago. I like the city a lot — Gladiator is one of my favourite movies — but I’m here for different reasons, and it’s even nicer.”
Beyond the bravado lurked a context of shifting sands. When the draw for the round of 16 was made two weeks ago, this felt like a 50-50 match-up — not the easiest of assignments but not the hardest either, with Roma taken to penalties by Feyenoord in the preceding play-off round, having finished second to Slavia Prague in their group, and potential opponents AC Milan avoided.
But the odds became heavily slanted in Roma’s favour before Brighton kicked a ball at a throbbing Olimpico.
The revival engineered by De Zerbi’s good friend Daniele De Rossi after replacing Jose Mourinho as manager in January has gathered pace since the teams were paired against each other; Roma have won six of seven games in Serie A under their former midfielder.
Brighton have won only twice over the corresponding period in the Premier League, a sequence brimming with inconsistency and harmed by significant injuries to Kaoru Mitoma (back), Jack Hinshelwood (foot) and Joao Pedro (hamstring).
Joao Pedro, their top scorer with 19 goals, including 10 penalties, is the only one of that trio who still has a part to play this season. Losing deliveries into the box from Mitoma on the left flank and Hinshelwood on the right proved a particular blow against Roma, since they have been susceptible to conceding goals from crosses.
“Brighton can cause trouble for Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea. These are the games we’ve studied,” De Rossi said pre-match. “There will be many duels, and we must win when we keep the ball and when they push.”
Presumably, the footage he referred to was from previous seasons, as opposed to the limp 2-0 away defeat against Arsenal in December. De Rossi said he expected “a complicated and difficult match”. He and his team got neither.
As the lights dimmed and the volume increased from the flag-waving Roma fans before kick-off, around 3,500 supporters in the away end made themselves heard over the din.
They had a good view of Paulo Dybala deceiving the naked eye with a well-timed run, latching onto a long, straight pass from Leandro Paredes behind a stretching Lewis Dunk before rounding Jason Steele to score.
Dybala looked offside in real time, but there was no rescue from VAR for yet another early goal conceded away from home. Twelve minutes had passed in this game; 21 had elapsed at Fulham on Saturday, two at Wolves in the FA Cup last month, one and three at Luton in January…
Dunk had an audition to forget for a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the European Championship this summer. With the interval looming, a time for damage limitation, the normally dependable skipper let in Romelu Lukaku by failing to control a ball on the volley that is normally so routine for him.
The noise from the away section quietened. Then headers by Danny Welbeck that forced Mile Svilar into some saves offered both optimism of a Marseille-type revival and contemplation of what might have been if Mitoma had been raiding in tandem with Simon Adingra.
The VAR did not get the Marseille-style comeback memo.
Gianluca Mancini looked narrowly offside when he stretched to volley in a left-wing cross from Stephan El Shaarawy. He looked offside on the replays too, but the goal was given; 3-0 down after 64 minutes.
(Paolo Bruno/Getty Images)
And into oblivion four minutes later, the defence all over the place as El Shaarawy found acres of room in the penalty area to cross with the outside of his right boot for Bryan Cristante to add the fourth with a twisting header.
At the final whistle, De Zerbi shook hands with De Rossi and was bear-hugged by his buddy. De Zerbi said: “I told him (De Rossi) the only positive was I lost against a friend. Imagine if it was someone I can’t stand.”
Where do De Zerbi and Brighton go from here after three away defeats in a row with eight goals conceded and none scored? A high-profile loss on this scale and stage does nothing for his prospects of landing one of the big jobs he has been linked with in the summer: Liverpool, Barcelona or Bayern Munich.
He spoke afterwards in Italian of lessons to be learned; for the “president” — by which he meant Brighton’s owner-chairman Tony Bloom — on squad strengthening, for himself on managing better the period in a season between January and March, and for the players “because they will walk away with many regrets. And with those regrets, next time you know what to expect and you can improve”.
How does he lift the latter for a banana skin of a home game against fourth-bottom Nottingham Forest on Sunday, and the return against Roma four days later? De Zerbi, speaking via a UEFA translator, said: “Brighton players are used to bouncing back from bad defeats such as this one, but the last few games (Wolves, Fulham, Roma) we’ve created many chances but haven’t scored. The last goal we scored was by Dunk, minute 95 against Everton (in the 1-1 home draw on February 24).
“I believe that in the Premier League, we can still fight and try to qualify for European football. Of course, it’s difficult when you have a lean squad of 13 to 15 players, playing every three days, especially when they are not used to it. That explains why we have also had so many injured players.”
Hope springs eternal.
It just did not feel that way, for De Zerbi’s team or their fans, last night in the Eternal City.
(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
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