Reviewing Ernesto Valverde’s shortcomings that led to his dismissal

Roma 3-0 Barcelona

After a 4-1 first-leg win, everyone thought Barcelona had the Champions League semis in the bag. Roma managed to make history by being the 3rd team to overturn a first-leg win of 3 goals or more.

So what went wrong on the five-time European Cup winners end? The team showed very little attack from the beginning and got more disheartened as the Roma fans voiced their support for their club and buoyed Barca.

Even the Barca superstar Messi, on to whom the entire team was heavily relying upon for a miracle, came up short. The maestro once drove the ball straight to the goalkeeper and came up empty on two free kicks that struck over the crossbar; highly uncharacteristic from him.

According to Valverde, the team lost due to their failure to respond to Roma’s aggression. Critics, however, seem to be of the opinion that Valverde’s gameplay was entirely too dependent on mid-fielders’ mould of build-up-play which they were not allowed to settle into by the Romans.

Even in the second half, they couldn’t turn the game around and Roma’s defender Kostas Manolas scored the third goal with just 8 minutes remaining in the game.

After this blow in the quarter-finals in 2018, many expected it to be the end of the road for Coach as his style of coaching clearly didn’t sit well with the Catalans; however, he was granted several more opportunities to redeem himself before the final blow came in the semis of a tournament that is not a priority for many- the Spanish Super Cup.