It was a lot harder to Roma to qualify for the European Cup than it was to win it. Back in the olden days, when only the champion made it, Roma simply couldn’t win the Scudetto. After a 41 year drought, it finally did so and in the process won entry to the 1983-84 European Cup. As it so happened, the final was going to be played at Roma’s home ground – the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
Roma began the competition with a comfortable tie against Gothenburg. It won the opening match 3-0 in Rome and despite a 2-1 loss in Sweden progressed comfortably through. The second round match was against CSKA Sofia. A pair of 1-0 win put the Italians into the last eight.
Many of the heavyweights were already out of the competition and so it was that Roma only had to play the East German Dynamo Berlin in the quarter-finals. A 3-0 win at home was a great start and a 2-1 loss away didn’t halt its progress.
The semi-final against Dundee United was a match of two halves. Dundee won the first game in Dundee 2-0 before Roma stormed home with a 3-0 win in Rome. This win was soured somewhat when allegations followed that Roma had tried to bribe the referee. Roma would go on to face Liverpool in the final.
Liverpool was the strongest team in Europe and looking for its fourth European Cup in seven years. With Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish and Graeme Souness it was a strong side. Roma has the likes of Bruno Conti and Di Bartolomei.
Phil Neal opened the scoring only for Roberto Pruzzo to equalize just before half-time. It stayed this way till full-time and then to the end of extra-time. This was the first European Cup to be decided on penalties.
Steve Nicol went first for Liverpool and missed. Di Bartolomei then stepped up and scored for Roma. Liverpool wouldn’t miss another of its four spot kicks while Roma missed two of its next three. Who knows if it made a difference but the spaghetti legs antics of Bruce Grobbelaar became famous.
Roma would finish runner-ups in Serie A the next two seasons, but under the old system this didn’t get them into the European Cup. It won the Serie A in 2001-02 and so found itself back in the Champions League after an 18 year absence.
It found itself in a group along with Real Madrid, Lokomotiv Moscow and Anderlecht. It finished second in the group to progress along to the next round. Here Roma was in another group of four with Barcelona, Galatasaray and old sparring partners, Liverpool. With one match in the group remaining, Roma were on top with 7 points, Barcelona had 6, Galatasaray had 5 and Liverpool had 4. In the final match, Roma were travelling to Anfield, while Barcelona had to go to Turkey. A draw would have been sufficient for Roma to progress while a loss would have been fine as long as the other match ended in a draw. Both Barcelona and Roma won to send Roma out. It was tied with Liverpool on seven points and even had a superior goal difference but it was the head to head results which saw it out of the competition.
The following year Roma found itself in a group back with Real Madrid as well as AEK Athens and Genk. After the group stage, Roma finished second on goal difference to Real Madrid. Roma moved to a group containing Valencia, Arsenal and Ajax. Again heading into the final match it was close. Ajax and Arsenal were both on 7 points while Valencia had 6 and Roma 4. If Roma could defeat Ajax at home in the final match, it would have a very good chance of progressing. It could only draw and so it was another difficult exit to stomach for the Romans.
Roma had a year off before returning for the 2004/05 Champions League tournament. In its opening group it was again with Real Madrid, as well as Bayer Leverkusen and Dynamo Kiev. The campaign was a disaster for Roma. It only gained one point from 18, could only score four goals from six matches and finished with a goal difference of negative 12.
Again it was two years before Roma would be back for the Champions League. In the 2006/07 tournament it found itself in a group with Valencia, Shakhtar Donetsk and Olympiacos. It performed a lot more consistently this time round and finished second in the group behind Valencia.
Now the second group stage was replaced by straight knockout. In the round of 16, Roma faced Lyon. A 0-0 draw in Rome was followed by a 2-0 win in Lyon. First-half goals Francesco Totti and Mancini settled the tie.
In the quarter-finals Roma was up against Manchester United. It headed to Old Trafford quietly confident after a 2-1 win in Rome. All the confidence disappeared though after a four goal onslaught by the Red Devils in the first half of the second leg. United added another three after the break and Daniele De Rossi to make it 7-1 on the night and 8-3 on aggregate. It was the first time United had fought back from a first-leg deficit in Europe since it had done so against Barcelona in 1984.
The following year in 2007-08, Roma found itself in a group with Dynamo Kiev, Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United. Roma finished second in the group against United and got past Real Madrid in the Round of 16 before losing again to United.
The following year, Roma was in a group with Chelsea, Bordeaux and Cluj. It topped the group and was drawn to face another English club – this time Arsenal. After two legs and extra time, nothing could separate the sides so it went to penalties. A miss to Eduardo was followed by a miss to Mirko Vučinić and thereafter no-one missed until Max Tonetto did so. This meant that if Abou Diaby could score the tie was over. He scored and that was that.
Just another one of the many disappointing exits Roma has had from the competition.