Champions League Special

Part Two: Roma

We continue our look at what's at stake for Italy's Champions League sides....

…Roma 2009... For some of the game’s highest profile teams, it’s a potential destination, but for one group of players and their supporters it is potential destiny. After losing out on the 2008 Scudetto in heartbreaking fashion, Roma and the Romanisti saw 2008-09 as a chance to set their sights on club football’s biggest prize. The European final, for the fourth time in history will be played in the Italian capital and, should I Lupi get there, they would have the chance to become the first team since Inter in 1965 to lift the Cup in their own home stadium. What stands in the way, both in this round and any subsequent rounds, is the best England has to offer.

If the scenario gives the Roma faithful a bit of déjà vu, its understandable. The 1984 side was presented with exactly the same opportunity. After disposing of Gothenberg, CSKA Sofia, and Dundee United, it rolled into the final to meet a Liverpool side that had won 3 European Cups in the previous seven seasons. Nils Liedholm’s Roma side gave it their all, but lost a painful penalty kick shootout, the first side to be dealt such a loss in the history of the tournament. Adding insult to injury were the “spaghetti legs” antics of Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar.

Agostino Di Bartolomei, the Rome-born captain that night, would take his own life on March 30, 1994, ten years to the day, forever adding real tragedy to a sporting one.

Di Bartolomei, and other Roman players are, after all, the reason why this club so embodies the spirit of its city. Liedholm could count on Bruno Conti, while Spalletti has Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi. Though the pair might have other chances to win the Champions League, they will not have another chance to do so in the Eternal City.

Infectious is the city’s hold, however, and that is why on Wednesday night, in the absence of at least De Rossi, other “adopted” Romans will show a fighting spirit against Arsenal, and struggle to keep the dream alive. Roma supporters over the last several years have fallen in love with this group, believing wholeheartedly that it is fated to accomplish something important, be it in the league for Europe. Those who are veterans of 1984, however, realize that events do not always transpire as they should.