The week of European cup action continues today with Europa League and Conference League matches. The game to focus on is the Italian derby between Bologna and Roma: the first leg of the round of 16 is scheduled for today, Thursday 12 March, at 6.45 p.m., with the return leg at the Olimpico next week on Thursday 19. It is a challenge within a challenge for Lukasz Skorupski, the 31-year-old goalkeeper who now defends the Rossoblù's goal but was Roma's second-choice keeper between 2013 and 2015 and in the 2017-18 season. Clearly, this is not the first time the Polish player has faced the Giallorossi as a former player, but he has never faced them in the Europa League before.
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Bologna-Roma, former player Skorupski and the Europa League nightmare: the time his mistake caused the Giallorossi's elimination
SKORUPSKI IN THE EUROPA LEAGUE WITH ROMA
One match in this competition was one of the Polish goalkeeper's last appearances in a Giallorossi shirt. In the 2014/15 season, Skorupski was the first-choice keeper for Rudi Garcia's side in the Europa League, where they had slipped after finishing third in their Champions League group with Bayern Munich, Manchester City and CSKA Moscow (the old rules meant that the third-placed team in the Champions League group went into the Europa League). That season, Skorupski had already played against Cesena and Juventus in the league and against City and Bayern in Europe due to De Sanctis' unavailability. The decision to start him in the Europa League against Feyenoord and Fiorentina, on the other hand, was a technical choice by the coach to give space to a player who was young at the time (23 years old) and was seen as a possible first-choice goalkeeper for the future.
SKORUPSKI'S MISTAKE AGAINST ROMA
However, things did not go as planned. Skorupski played two good matches in the round of 32 against Feyenoord and did not do badly in the first leg of the round of 16 against Fiorentina (another Italian derby). The setback came in the return leg against the Viola. After the 1-1 draw in the first leg, Skorupski made a mistake in the 18th minute of the second leg, with the score at 0-1: trying to avoid giving away a corner to the opponents, the Polish keeper inadvertently served Marcos Alonso, who tapped the ball into the empty net and effectively sealed the match. The match ended 3-0 to Fiorentina, spelling the end of Roma's European campaign. The Giallorossi goalkeeper was criticised for his mistake, and Garcia was criticised for playing him. Today, Skorupski faces Roma again in Europe, this time as an opponent. At 34, he is more mature and more experienced. Who knows if he will try to avoid conceding a corner to the opposition by clearing the ball off the line again.
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