Roma suffered a crushing 2-0 defeat to the unbeatable Bayer Leverkusen last night in the Europa League to leave their dreams of winning the Europa League hanging by a thread. The Italian giants had chances of their own on the night but ultimately lost 2-0 thanks to goals from Florian Wirtz and Robert Andrich.
Roma had started the game brightly and Romelu Lukaku missed a great opportunity to put the home side 1-0 up early on but his missed chance was punished shortly after by Wirtz. However, it isn't the Belgian striker who Roma fans are blaming for the loss but rather Dutch right-back Rick Karsdorp.
The 29-year-old has been a fringe player at the club for several seasons now after injuries ravaged a promising career. However, he was drafted into the starting XI for the match against Leverkusen due to Ramus Kristensen's ineligibility and Zeki Celik's suspension.
It could have been a night of redemption for Karsdorp but instead, it turned into a night of horror. It was his sloppy pass that played in Alejandro Grimaldo who had the simple task of rolling in Florian Wirtz who put the ball into an empty net.
Roma with a horrible error! 😬
Florian Wirtz opens the scoring ⚽️#UEL
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Roma fans boo Karsdorp off the pitch
The Dutchman never really recovered from the mistake and he looked like a man who wanted to be taken off from the minute the mistake happened. However, Danielle de Rossi elected to keep him on the pitch until the 62nd minute.
The reaction to his substitution was far from pleasant with the Stadio Olimpico booing Karsdorp in unison as he made his way off the pitch. The Dutchman was so angry by the reaction of the home fans that he refused to take his place on the bench for the remainder of the match and instead headed down the tunnel and to the changing room.
De Rossi backs Karsdorp
Although Roma fans clearly blame Kardsorp for the defeat, his manager has come to his defence. Speaking afterwards, de Rossi told reporters:
“Errors are normal, we are not going to blame anyone. I will never get angry with one of my players for a bad pass. He made that error after a good defensive move. Of course, he was affected by that error and the crowd’s reaction was normal.
“It would have been useless to replace him at halftime, it would have been the easier way to blame somebody for the defeat. We can’t think that fans always back us. The error had an impact and now we must stay close to him.”