Roma 4-0 Brighton: Albion conquered by ruthless Romans

Well, that could have gone better. Fans stabbed, woeful defending, a suicidal high line, an almost impossible task going into the second leg and a not-so-thinly veiled barb from Roberto De Zerbi towards Tony Bloom. Roma 4-0 Brighton was a burning in the Eternal City for the Albion.

“Today we paid for our mistakes, from the owners to the coaches and the players,” De Zerbi said afterwards following his sides third defeat in a row coming with zero goals scored and eight conceded.

It was an interview that had shades of Gus Poyet about it. He Who Must Not Be Named was never afraid to criticise the board in public, which is part of the reason why the Albion have since airbrushed from history the man who started the club’s revolution on the pitch.

De Zerbi is now doing similar. The mistake Tony Bloom has made – in De Zerbi’s eyes – is not doing sufficient business in the transfer market.

Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo were never properly replaced. Then when De Zerbi wanted “three or four” new players in January to bolster a flagging squad, he got none. Or none who are ready to come straight into the starting XI and make an immediate impact, at least.

Brighton are famously a club who do not take criticism well at board level. For all their positive traits, Bloom knows how to hold a grudge and Paul Barber has a very thin skin.

How they react to their own head coach being quite so public with his admonishment is going to be interesting to say the least.

De Zerbi referenced his own mistakes in Roma 4-0 Brighton, of which there were several. He persisted with a back three, also used in the heavy 4-0 defeat at Luton Town and the 3-0 thrashing by Fulham last weekend.

The overwhelming evidence is that this Albion squad play much better in a 4-2-3-1. I can see it. You can see it. The only person who cannot see it is the only one who matters – Mister De Zerbi.

He can talk about mistakes all he wants. What really needs to happen is learning from them, rather than doggedly sticking with a formation which keeps delivering hammerings.

Playing a high line up against the likes of Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku was never likely to end well. The first two goals in Roma 4-0 Brighton came from those two players streaking clear of an Albion defence which had no hope of catching up.

The other two goals came from the sort of woeful defending which has been seen far too frequently from Brighton this season.

For all those rumours linking De Zerbi with Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, it is hard to see any elite club looking at the way the Albion defend and wanting to take a punt on appointing him this summer.

Good news for Brighton maybe, presuming there is not a total breakdown in relationship between head coach and board by the end of the campaign – a campaign which has fallen apart alarmingly in the past two weeks.

Brighton are now out of the FA Cup. Barring a total miracle of beating Roma by four clear goals at the Amex to salvage extra time, they are out of Europe.

And given the Albion have won only five of their past 20 in the Premier League, pushing for a top seven finish seems out of the question right now.

Unless domestic form drastically improves because of elimination from the Europa League, the season is effectively over with two months still to play.

Whilst the Albion were their own worst enemies in Roma 4-0 Brighton, you have to credit the hosts too. I Giallorossi looked every bit a side who have reached European finals in two consecutive seasons.

The home fans created some atmosphere too, hostile towards both Albion players and fans. Lighters, bottles and coins were thrown into the away section, to the point where Brighton requested UEFA and the Italian police do something about it.

Good luck with that; there was more chance of meeting Princess Diana outside Stadio Olimpico than the Italian police intervening or helping to protect English football fans.

Hence why every English club who visits the Eternal City – even Middlesbrough and now Brighton – ends up in the headlines for supporters being stabbed by local ultras.

Two of the victims of such attacks the night before Roma 4-0 Brighton made it to the Stadio Olimpico to heroes welcomes having spent up to six hours in hospital being stitched up.

More than one of their friends made the joke come full time of “Bet you wish you were still in hospital!” A heavy defeat in Europe, season hopes hanging by a thread, but at least Seagulls supporters retain their gallows humour.

Roma could have taken the lead inside of three minutes. Some questionable defending from Brighton set the tone for what was to come, Leonardo Spinazzola crossing from the left and Lukaku powering a header towards goal requiring a brilliant reflex save from Jason Steele.

Although there is no doubt the Albion deserved to lose, things might have turned out very different had Simon Adingra’s cross been diverted by Roma defender Evan N’Dicka for an own goal rather than crashing against the post.

Go 1-0 up, quieten the Olimpico, get a bit of confidence back… games of football hinge on big moments and that was certainly one.

Not long after and Roma took a 13th minute lead. Lewis Dunk could not cut out a Leandro Paredes pass and Dybala timed his run to perfection, being just onside and now having 30 yards of open space to gallop into thanks to the Albion’s high line.

The Argentine international duly rounded Steele and fired into the back of the net. The goal stood after a VAR check.

Mile Svilar used an outstretched leg to save from Danny Welbeck before another one of those game-changing, big moments arrived on the stroke of half time.

Making it into the break just a goal behind would have given Brighton the chance to regroup and push on in the second half. Instead, a Dunk error allowed Roma to make it 2-0.

The Albion captain should have twatted the ball into row Z when last man with Lukaku bearing down. Dunk though tried to bring it down, only succeeding in losing possession to Lukaku, who ran clear to score.

Svilar again denied Welbeck with seconds of the first half remaining. The action resumed in similar end-to-end style after the interval, Fati testing Svilar and Steele saving from Lukaku.

Welbeck then brought some impressive rugby skills to the Stadio Olimpico a few days before Italy host Scotland in the Six Nations, scooping a one-on-one miles over the bar. Three points in rugby, nil points in football.

Following that, I Giallorossi took the tie away from Brighton in the final 25 minutes with two goals in quick succession, both from crosses into the box.

Gianluca Mancini diverted past Steele for the first and Bryan Cristante was left unmarked to produce a flying header for the second.

Come full time, the Albion had been shown what it is really like to compete on the European stage. A learning curve for everyone from Bloom to De Zerbi, if Brighton want to become Europa League regulars in the future.