Feyenoord’s exceptional Europa league campaign continued on Thursday as they deservedly held Roma to a 1-1 draw in Rome.
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The build up to the game was marred by reports of Feyenoord fans clashing with police, and causing major damage to several areas around the town centre. However when the match kicked off, Feyenoord’s players allowed their football to do the talking.
In the opening ten minutes Roma should have taken the lead, but firstly Gervinho and then Francesco Totti passed up great chances to open the scoring.
Feyenoord had a lot of possession but they were too sloppy with their passes and barely threatened the Italian side, who opened the scoring on 22 minutes when Gervinho got ahead of Luke Wilkshire and fired past Kenneth Vermeer with a cheeky back-heel.
Gervinho nearly made it 2-0 three minutes later, while Feyenoord had their first real opportunity just before the break but Lukasz Skorupski kept out Colin Kazim Richards shot.
Ten minutes into the second half Feyenoord were level when Skorupski turned Lex Immers header onto the post and Kazim Richards fired in the rebound. Roma went on the attack to find the winner, but substitute Seydou Doumbia failed to finish a simple chance, while Vermeer kept out a Torosidis shot.
Feyenoord defended resolutely and now return to Rotterdam with an away goal and are in a commanding position to earn a place in the last 16.
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