AS Roma and Manchester United traded 13 goals between them in the UEFA Europa League semi-final, making it the highest-scoring knockout tie in the competition’s history. The Red Devils took the tie 8-5 and have progressed to the final.
European knockout ties involving AS Roma are never dull, as the last few years have taught us. The Giallorossi’s Champions League semi-final run in 2018 remains one of the most memorable in recent times, mostly due to their performances against Barcelona and Liverpool. Pit them against a team of Manchester United’s pedigree, and there are high chances of fireworks.
Fireworks were what the tie between Roma and Manchester United produced. The two teams met in the Europa League semi-final and shared 13 goals across two legs – a competition record. Unfortunately for Roma, they were on the receiving end for a lot of those goals.
Roma knew they needed to score at least four goals to have any chance of progressing to the final. The Serie A outfit had been thrashed by Manchester United 6-2 a week earlier, making their task incredibly difficult. Things did not get any easier in the second leg too, as Edinson Cavani opened the scoring for the Red Devils in the 39th minute. This was his third goal of the tie, but he wasn’t finished yet.
Manchester United took the lead with them into the break but were pegged back level shortly after the interval. Edin Dzeko scored the equalizer for Roma as he headed home from close range. As they did in the first leg, Roma then took the lead. Bryan Cristante put his side 2-1 up on the hour mark as he fired a shot across David De Gea from a distance.
Roma still needed three goals in half-hour to progress to the final at that point. Their task became all the more difficult when Cavani scored his second of the night and fourth of the tie, heading in a Bruno Fernandes cross past Antonio Mirante. The Giallorossi found themselves on the brink of elimination, but they did manage to score the winning goal. Substitute Nicola Zalewski thought he had scored the winner, but his striker went down as an Alex Telles own goal.
