Opinion: Four things we learned from Roma-Borussia

Roma robbed at the death

Despite AS Roma being robbed of all three points at the death courtesy of a poor refereeing decision to award Borussia Monchengladbach a penalty for handball, when the ball clearly hit Chris Smalling's face, the Giallorossi should still be proud of their efforts.

Controlling large parts of the game while keeping their dangerous, Bundesliga leading opponents pretty quiet, an undermanned Roma deserved to take the spoils in front of the Stadio Olimpico faithful. Ruing the events of the night, Paulo Fonseca was left to ponder what could've been if the officiating had been on point.

"We did control the match well. In the second half they had more of the ball but we had more chances and never got caught out. It's two points lost, but we must look forward. This match is finished and we can't do anything about it now," he lamented after the 1-1 draw.

"It's a bad mistake and it shouldn't happen at this level. With those two extra points, the group would look different. Now we have three more games in which anything can happen. If we'd won today, everything would have been easier. I don't understand the referee. He seemed so confident, but he can't have seen a handball. I saw straight away that it hit the face.”

Smalling's consistency and quality on show

On a night that ended in the aforementioned controversy surrounding him, Smalling still had every reason to be satisfied with his output. Defending brilliantly and with conviction, he executed his actions extremely effectively.

Athletic and so aware of where his opponents were positioned due to his head checking, the speedy stopper did a great job of tracking runners. Needing to be right on top of his game to deal with the blistering Marcus Thuram and Breel Embolo, the Englishman hardly put a foot wrong, using all his experience and nous to limit their threat.

Smalling's pace and reading of the play also meant he covered any blown marking assignments from his colleagues, as he mopped up danger calmly.

Meanwhile, when his direct opponent dropped deep, he pounced immediately to this trigger, with him looking to force a turnover while never allowing his targets an easy touch or to turn him.

Also chiming in with some vital interceptions and demonstrating his competency in aerials duels, where he timed his tackles cleanly and sharply picked up the ball's trajectory to cut out crosses, there's no doubting what a wonderful addition the Manchester loanee's been, with this latest display aptly proving so.

Infield wingers key in breaking the press

Coming up against Marco Rose's brilliantly organised pressing team, who are always a real challenge to break down, Fonseca devised a particularly astute strategy to beat the press. By asking his wingers to drift infield and move into central midfield locations behind Gladbach's pressing central midfielders and ball near winger, this gave the Wolves a fine platform to bypass their narrow opponents.

With the Gladbach central defenders usually unwilling to come out and mark Nicolo Zaniolo or Justin Kluivert due to the large distances they'd need to move out of shape and the Roma fullbacks taking the attention of Gladbach's fullbacks, this meant there was plenty of room to be exploited. Moreover, when the Giallorossi built up in a back three and the Gladbach winger pressed a Roma side back, this only amplified the space available as shown underneath.

Kluivert and Zaniolo could subsequently inherit possession in plenty of space so they could turn and drive at the away team's backline. The below images and heat maps of Zaniolo and Kluivert illustrate how they found space in infield areas to have an impact, as Fonseca's smart plan worked wonders on many occasions, and especially in the passage that led to the corner that Zaniolo ultimately converted.

Mancini's adjusts encouragingly to midfield role

Due to Roma's midfield options being decimated by injuries, Fonseca opted to field Gianluca Mancini in central midfield. And to his credit, the Italian performed admirably in this unfamiliar role.

Having clearly taken on board Fonseca's instructions, he adapted encouragingly to the demands of the position. Adding plenty of bite, aggression and intensity in the middle of the park, he set the tone for his teammates to follow with their defensive work.

Imposing himself physically on his adversaries with his forceful, proactive approach, the pressure he applied was first rate. Responding swiftly when an opponent received a slow pass, with their back to goal or in an open body posture, Mancini pounced authoritatively on his way to winning the ball back frequently.

Powerful in his duels, both on the ground and in the air, plus protecting the backline adeptly, these were some other highlights from his defensive exertions.

When it came to his offensive contribution, the 23-year-old helped connect and construct Roma's build-up play pretty well too. Often dropping deep between Roma's central defenders to form a 3v2 or 4v3 against Gladbach's first line of pressure, this gave his team an advantage to progress the ball. In addition, his positioning also allowed Veretout to push higher up while Mancini offered structural security, which meant Roma often attacked in 3-4-3 shape.

From here, not only did he recirculate possession coherently, switch the angle of attacks and move the ball with tempo, he also struck some incisive line breaking passes into the feet of his attackers.

By the numbers, his six free ball pick-ups, three interceptions, two tackles, two won aerial duels and the fact he completed 39 of his 41 attempted passes illustrated his strong body of work.