Alessandro Florenzi’s wonder goal grabs Roma a point against Barcelona
Florenzi raced down the touchline and was just inside the Barcelona half when he spotted Marc-Andre ter Stegen off his line and unleashed a looping effort which flew over the Barça goalkeeper’s head and into the net off the far post.
Ter Stegen ran back desperately, then appeared to stop thinking that the ball would go out only to see it land in the goal in the 31st minute of the Group E game. “It will be something to remember,” Florenzi said. “It’s not something that happens often.”
“It’s not something that happens every day,” he added in a television interview. “Looking at the video now is making me emotional. We have climbed Everest. We were united towards a single goal, to stop this team. We’ve prepared well, we knew their strengths.”
Luis Suárez, who later appeared to kick Roma goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in the chest after being denied by the Poland international, had given Barcelona the lead as they began the defence of their trophy.
As expected, Barcelona, whose coach Luis Enrique was returning to the club he coached for a season, dominated possession and the Roma crowd was often strangely silent as the visitors stroked the ball around in midfield.
Lionel Messi and Suárez both had early chances before Barcelona prised open the Roma defence in the 21st minute.
Jeremy Mathieu floated a long ball over the defence which set Ivan Rakitic clear on the right and the Croat’s cross was headed in by Suárez at point-blank range.
Barcelona were threatening to over-run the home side when the Roma right-back Florenzi brought the house down with his spectacular effort. “You can concede a goal when you least expect it, as we showed,” said Luis Enrique. “But it was a very good match for Barcelona and I’m very satisfied with what I saw on the pitch. We played a complete game and we deserved a better result. We had the game under control.”
Barcelona also had the better of the second half although with Neymar failing to spark they created few real chances until Messi hit the bar with 12 minutes left. “It’s a draw that’s worth as much as a victory,” the Roma midfielder Daniele De Rossi said.
“We’ve improved,” the Roma coach, Rudi Garcia, added. “The experience we had last year in the Champions League helped. I was very pleased with our defensive organisation. Tactically, we were almost perfect.”
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