A game of two halves
It is the most overused cliché in football, but the match in Belarus was a game of two halves.
In the opening 45 minutes, the Giallorossi were appalling. They conceded three soft goals against a club who have never gone past the group stages in Europe’s premier club competition. On-loan goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny will have to take the blame for Mladenovic’s two goals with the Polish shot stopper caught horribly out of position on both occasions.
But Roma’s defence was all at sea in a terrible 30 minutes for Rudi Garcia’s men.
In the second half, things improved. Roma’s front trio of Mohamed Salah, Gervinho and Iago Falque (who came on late in the first half) were impressive and caused BATE all sorts of problems. Gervinho and Torosidis, brought on early in the second half, got Roma’s goals and the Giallorossi were unlucky not to get a winner, with Alessandro Florenzi’s late effort rebounding off the bar.
Yet Roma can have very few complaints. They were poor in the first half and that level of performance is simply not good enough in the Champions League.
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