If Wilfried Nancy thought his start at Celtic was difficult on Sunday, well, it’s going to test him even further on Thursday night in the Europa League.
Whether it’s Brendan Rodgers, Martin O’Neill, or Celtic’s new manager in charge. This Europa League showdown against AS Roma was always going to be tough.
The Italian giants have already been in Glasgow this season because at the start of November, Roma beat Rangers at Ibrox, thanks to goals from rising star Matías Soulé and Lorenzo Pellegrini.
The only plus Celtic can take from all of this is that Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have hit a bump in the road in recent weeks.
Photo by Enrico Locci/Getty ImagesAS Roma lose to Cagliari ahead of Europa League clash against Celtic
It wasn’t so long ago that Roma was sitting at the top of Serie A, unbeaten, and making a flying start under their new coach.
But after losing their first league match of the season last month to champions Napoli, that theme continued, this time to Cagliari on Sunday.
As Celtic were losing to Hearts, their Thursday opponents were facing the same fate on the road, with Mehmet Zeki Celik getting sent off just before the hour mark.
It now means that Roma have lost back-to-back league matches for the first time in 2025, and they have also failed to score in those two games for the first time since 2024.
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What has Gian Piero Gasperini said
Usually, managers always like to have a moan after a game, especially when they lose, and big decisions go against their side.
But not Gasperini, who didn’t argue with Celik’s costly sending off, or any call during their defeat to Cagliari.
Perhaps this fires up Roma even further ahead of their trip to Celtic, but this is what Gasperini had to say after his side’s loss to Cagliari.
“All the decisions seemed pretty clear to me,” Gasperini told Gianluca Di Marzio. “Unlike last week against Napoli, we have no complaints about the referee.
“Down to ten men, the game became more difficult, even if, for a while, we managed not to allow much danger. It was tough to create in those situations; it became more of a battle than a football match.
“We certainly made a few obvious errors, both on the red card and the goal, so it becomes difficult to get a result when that happens. Cagliari had a lot of long balls, like many teams at this stage of the season in the lower levels of the table, they are throwing everything onto the pitch.
“We could’ve done better on a technical level. In the second half, we had what it took to step up a gear, but the red card changed those plans.
“At a certain point, there was very little football; it was a battle. We were unable to get the game back on track down to 10 men, but when matches go in that direction, the best you can do is take home a point, and we nearly did it. Perhaps we just didn’t manage to adapt to the situation and made some cheap errors.”
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