The eternal Roma made Bulgaria cry, we brought the wolves into the fold of Padt ourselves
Bulgarian champions Ludogorets will play in the Conference League in the spring after they had a great chance to qualify for the Europa League finals, but lost 3-1 to Jose Mourinho’s Roma in a crucial final group stage match. The Stadio Olimpico in Rome was a powder keg that gave his team the spark they needed to turn it around.
The Italians were active in the opening minutes of the match, with Lorenzo Pellegrini shooting but his shot went wide of Sergio Padt’s post. Ibanez, Matic and El Shaaraoui harassed the Bulgarian goalkeeper with their attempts to score, but failed to score. At the other end of the field, in favor of the Bulgarian team, Bernard Tekpetei tried to realize several chances of his own in the 21st and 38th minutes, but failed.
In the 41st minute, Cowley shot from the edge of the penalty area, but the ball went wide of the left post of the Italian goal. Then came the moment of Ludogorets! Rick Jonathan raced past the stars of the Roma defense and then broke through to shoot and score uncompromisingly to make it 1-0.
This greatly angered Jose Mourinho, who at the start of the second half made a triple substitution that proved outstanding. The omnipresent goalkeeper of the Bulgarian team, Sergio Padt, saved the shots of Niccolò Dzaniolo and Stefan El Shaaraoui. The Italians have claims for a penalty due to Nedyalkov’s handball, but replays show that he is playing with his body. This hinted that the Roman Wolves would suffer this way for a turnaround.
In the 55th minute, Roma was awarded a penalty kick for a foul against reserve Niccolo Zaniolo, which Lorenzo Pellegrini converted for 1:1. Ten minutes later, Mourinho’s team received a second penalty for pushing Zaniolo in the penalty area, and Pellegrini again surprisingly fell into the other corner of the Bulgarian team’s goal, scoring for 2:1.
And then the last action. In the 76th minute, substitute Nonato scored a goal in Roma’s goal, but the referee looked at the situation on the video replay, judged that Rick Jonathan had hit Ibanez with the hand and disallowed the goal.
The guard of the Bulgarian team fell, and this affected the defensive strength of the Bulgarian champion. Logically, Roma reached a third goal, the work of Zaniolo in the 85th minute.
Ludogorets coach Ante Shimundza brought all his offensive players into the game, but the Bulgarian team failed to equalize, which would have sent them to the Europa League finals.
Olivier Verdon receives a red card and will miss two games for Conference League side Ludogorets after stepping on Zalewski during a Roma attack.
Ludogorets leaves the Europa League with the confidence of having twice played superbly against the team of one of the best coaches in the world, Jose Mourinho, and awaits the draw for the Conference League. The team’s opponent in a preliminary elimination round before the Round of 16 will be one of the runners-up in the Conference League groups.