Analysis: Defensive reshuffle leaves Braga chasing shadows

Despite Bryan Cristante and Roger Ibanez being forced off through injury to add to Roma's defensive headaches on Thursday night, an undermanned Roma recorded an impressive 2-0 away win over Braga in the Europa League.

Getting off to an electric start again, Roma took the lead inside five minutes courtesy of Edin Dzeko before Borja Mayoral sealed the victory late to give Roma a huge advantage heading into the home leg next week.

Even though they were left with just one natural centre back to deploy and Paulo Fonseca was forced to shuffle his central defensive ranks on multiple occasions, Roma held firm to keep a clean sheet to reward their efforts.

Showing immense character, tactical adaptability and understanding of their manager's demands, Fonseca cut a delighted figure after defeating one of his former teams.

"It (the win) was a demonstration of the team’s spirit," he said.

"We had to deal with a lot of issues with our central defenders and finding the right solution to that wasn’t easy. But Spinazzola and Karsdorp did well in those positions. And Veretout, too, did well at full-back. It was tough, but I think all our defenders did really well."

Fonseca's tactical adjustments after Ibanez got injured were especially key towards their victory, which showed how exceptionally well drilled and flexible he's coached his players to be.

Replacing Ibanez with Gonzalo Villar and rejigging his setup in the process, Roma then lined up with a central defensive back three that consisted of Gianluca Mancini in the middle (taking Ibanez's role), Rick Karsdorp to his right (Mancini's old post) and Leonardo Spinazzola (moved here after Cristante's injury) on the left.

Jordan Veretout was then pushed out to right wing back from his initial midfield station while Bruno Peres stayed at left wing back, which meant Villar and Amadou Diawara formed the duo in central midfield.

The three attacking players of Edin Dzeko, Pedro and Henrikh Mkhitaryan maintained their usual roles.

After making a slew of changes, which meant their two starting wing backs were now playing as centre backs and midfield lynchpin Veretout was at wingback, Roma admirably settled into their groove right away.

While it helped that Ricardo Esgaio was sent off in the 54th minute, there were still many interesting tactical features that allowed Roma to shine. To start with, Diawara would drop to support build up to essentially form a back three or four, which formed an overload so Roma had additional time and space to beat Braga's first line of pressure.

When the Guinean did so, Karsdorp would then push wide to stretch Braga, as he provided a key option that caused them to cover even greater distances when pressing.

On the other side, Spinazzola would also push wide, with him given tremendous freedom to bomb on and join attacks to put extra strain on Braga's already occupied backline. With Bruno Peres marauding upfield too, Roma could form advantageous 3v2 overloads out wide and in the half spaces to either exploit the flanks or the inside channel.

The way Spinazzola would sometimes embark on overlapping runs around the outside of Peres warranted mention and showed his offensive intent.

With the wingbacks in advanced areas and Roma's forwards and attacking midfielders occupying Braga's back three, this saw Roma go 5v5 against the home side's rearguard. In doing so, this left minimal room for error for Braga, for one mistake or blown marking assignment would be enough for Roma to get in behind.

Dzeko, Pedro and Mkhitaryan dovetailed sharply to enable Roma to find some joy by pulling apart their adversaries' defensive shape to amplify their threat.

Using clever opposite movements, rotations with one another and by often being positioned within close proximity, they effectively opened up spaces to be exploited while causing massive decisional dilemmas for Braga's stoppers on the best course of action to take.

Showing their fine understanding and knowledge of how to pin and draw trackers out of shape, many dangerous openings were forged in front of and especially in behind Carlos Carvalhal defence. Indeed, Roma's second offered a testament to how efficiently they manipulated their foes with Mayoral finishing with aplomb after Roma unbalanced their structure to create an ideal 3v2.

There were some additional aspects of the Giallorossi's second goal that deserve praise, with the most intriguing one being the positional interchange between Diawara and Karsdorp.

Here, Karsdorp ventured into central midfield while Diawara pushed deeper, as this allowed Roma some valuable time and space while generating a 4v3 overload.

Forming this solid base, this was the catalyst for the exceptional passage that followed, as Diawara then found Veretout wide, who in turn pinpointed Stephan El Shaarawy inside.

The Italian then swivelled and hit Mkhitaryan, as the Armenian then slipped through Veretout after his wicked third man run.

By now, Roma had completely dismantled Braga's structure, leaving them at a 3v2 disadvantage, before Veretout struck a measured assist for Mayoral to finish.

Supporting one another, shifting across laterally, tracking runners diligently and knowing when to step out, it was notable how well the makeshift backline coped defensively.

"Myself, Karsdorp and Veretout all had to make sacrifices and play in unusual positions. But we did that. It was important to win - scoring two goals without reply makes it even better," Spinazzola said afterwards.

Faced with so many conundrums on how to set up in light of the injuries, this win served as another glowing testament to Fonseca's intelligence and outstanding work on the training ground instilling his players with the tactical details of his system.

With Roma now in a strong position to progress to the last-16, if all goes to plan in Rome, they'll look back on their outstanding efforts in the first leg with tremendous pride and satisfaction on what was a super collective performance.