Why Roma’s approach against Porto leaves their Champions League hopes in the balance

The battle of the Champions League returned from the winter break on Tuesday night as AS Roma encountered FC Porto in the round of 16. As last years semi-finalists Roma came to this clash as favourites to advance to the next stage. However, there was not really big gap between the two sides in the first half, at least on paper.

Although Roma were in control from the beginning, they couldnt turn their dominance into a tangible advantage until late in the second half when Zaniolo scored twice in quick succession with only one goal in response. There are still many talking points but this tactical analysis will focus on some important aspects of the game.

There were two main factors behind the goalless first half. Firstly, Roma failed to score from their few promising opportunities. Secondly, Porto couldnt create scoring chances full stop.

Lineups

The hosts deployed a 4-3-3 formation which easily transformed into a 4-5-1 in defence. In midfield, Lorenzo Pellegrini and Bryan Cristante had room to operate while Daniele De Rossi took the more defensive role. At the middle of the front trio, Edin Dzeko played as a target man while Eusebio di Francesco chose El Shaarawy on the left instead of Justin Kluivert. In the absence of Cengiz Under and Patrick Schick, Nicolo Zaniolo hugged the right side.

On the other side, Porto formed their usual 4-4-2 but in the absence of Moussa Corona, Otavio was responsible for the right wing. In the middle, Sergio Conceicao chose a cautious midfield pair with Hector Herrera and the defensive-minded Danilo Pereira.

Porto struggles

It turned out that early in the game the guests had difficulties when building from the back. This was one of the major issues for Porto since they could not create a stable build-up against Roma’s press. Lets see why.

Firstly, Di Francesc