Liverpool-Roma: The Media Has Its Say

Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat against Liverpool could be viewed in three acts. The first 20 minutes or so made us believe that Roma could hang with Liverpool and perhaps even jump out to a lead behind a solid start. Then the script flipped and what was supposed to feature 22 protagonists became a one man show. That is “The Mo Salah Show”. The next 60 minutes or so was complete and utter domination at the feet of the ex-Roma star. Meanwhile, the last act featured a grand finale that saw Roma’s persistence pay off with two late goals. That frantic finale, in theory, leaves the Giallorossi with hope going into next week’s return leg, when episode II airs on Wednesday. Depending on which publication you read, the headlines chose to focus on different aspects of the match. Let’s take a look at the Italian Press and then the English.

Italian Press

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Rome based Corriere dello Sport featured a headline that said “Come on Roma. You can do it.” which focused more on Roma’s late goals and hopes for another miracle at the Olimpico than Liverpool’s domination.

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Another Rome based paper, Il Messagero, also promoted the idea of hope with the headline “Roma, you can hope”.

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Milan based Gazzetta dello Sport gave Salah his due but also threw in “Now another miracle!”

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Interestingly, enough Turin based TuttoSport didn’t give the match much space on it’s cover. However, in the small amount space they did, the words “Come on Roma, Don’t Give Up” were featured.

English Press

The English media, as expected, did much more to laud Salah and Liverpool’s performance. The much deserved praise can be seen in the cover shots below. However, mixed in all of the Salah and Liverpool praise, one can find that The Daily Telegraph and especially The Guardian point out that Roma still have hope.

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After taking a look at the covers of some of the major publications in both countries, it becomes clear that both chose to feature the positives in the performance of their representative. Even though Roma were thoroughly outclassed, a lot of the Italian media chose to feature the hope (albeit faint) of another three goal miracle. Meanwhile, in England, Liverpool might’ve well already punched their ticket to Kiev. Roma fans can only hope that De Rossi and Company are able to write the final act. Perhaps one called “Roman Revenge”.