Jose Mourinho takes charge of his first competitive match with Roma as the season gets underway with a Europa Conference League match against Trabzonspor on Thursday.
With pre-season now behind us, the real action is about to begin – although Roma have some European commitments to oversee before the Serie A season starts.
First up for Mourinho’s men is the first leg of their Conference League play-off, away at Turkish side Trabzonspor. The game will see Roma come up against ex-players Bruno Peres and Gervinho, and should be a relatively tough challenge for this stage of the competition.
The tie is a two-legged affair, so this is just the first meeting before the sides reconvene in Rome next week. The away goals rule is no longer in place for UEFA competitions, it is worth remembering, while there is no VAR in the Conference League until the final.
Roma could give competitive debuts to summer signing such as Rui Patricio, Matias Vina or Eldor Shomurodov, but the game comes too soon for new English frontman Tammy Abraham, who will be hoping to be available for the Serie A curtain-raiser at the weekend instead before the second leg.
Compatriot Chris Smalling is also unavailable due to an injury. Mourinho confirmed at his pre-match press conference that Smalling’s issue isn’t that serious and he retains faith in his former Manchester United player. However, in his absence, the coach confirmed Gianluca Mancini and Roger Ibanez will form the central defensive partnership.
Mourinho remained in control of his conversation with the media, though, indicating that he would not give away team news in advance unless the squad already knew – as in the case of the defensive update.
Thus, it will be interesting to see what balance Mourinho opts for, with Serie A set to start in the days after this game. He did admit that this play-off could even be of Champions League level, so likely won’t be taking things easy.
This will be the first ever meeting between the two sides, and Roma’s first trip to Turkey since facing Istanbul Basaksehir in the group stages of the Europa League in 2019-20. They came back with a 3-0 win that day, so will be hoping for a similar fate this time around.
Indeed, Mourinho said he wanted Roma to try and win both games in and of themselves, rather than just focusing on winning the whole tie. Therefore, all will be wanting to see good performances in both legs – starting with the away match on Thursday.
The game, which will also be Roma’s first showing of their new away kit in action, kicks off at 6:30pm UK time.
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