Big Match Feature: Roma v Feyenoord

Two teams who kicked off their Uefa Europa Conference League campaign under new head coaches in the qualifying phase before winning their groups and coming through three knockout rounds meet in the inaugural final as José Mourinho's Roma and Arne Slot's Feyenoord go head to head in Albanian capital Tirana.

Roma are seeking their first victory in a Uefa final, having lost their previous two – against Liverpool in the 1984 European Cup and Inter in the 1991 Uefa Cup.

Feyenoord are bidding to make it four wins out of four in major UEFAfinals, their first three having brought victories in the 1970 European Cup (v Celtic) and the Uefa Cups of 1974 (vTottenham Hotspur) and 2002 (v Borussia Dortmund).

While Roma have lost twice in the Uefa Europa Conference League – both away to Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt –Feyenoord are undefeated since the start of the group stage.

The finalists are the two top-scoring teams in the competition proper, Feyenoord having found the net 28 times in their 12 games, one more than Roma.

They also boast the competition's top two individual marksmen, with Feyenoord's Cyriel Dessers on ten goals, one more than Tammy Abraham of Roma.

Despite taking only one point off Bodø/Glimt in their two autumn encounters, sensationally losing 6-1 away before drawing 2-2 at home, Roma pipped their Norwegian rivals to top spot in Group C, hitting 18 goals – the most of any team in the group stage – before edging past Vitesse in the round of 16 (1-0 a, 1-1 h).

Paired once more with Bodø/Glimt in the quarterfinals, Mourinho's team lost again in Norway, 2-1, but recovered to win 4-0 in Rome. They then overcame Leicester City in the semifinal, drawing 1-1 away before winning 1-0 at home.

Feyenoord finished six points ahead of Slavia Praha to top Group E undefeated and qualify directly for the round of16, where they added two more victories in comfortably disposing of Partizan 8-3 on aggregate (5-2 a, 3-1 h).

Slot's side re-encountered the Czech champions in the quarterfinal and defeated them 6-4 on aggregate (3-3 h, 3-1 a)before edging out Marseille (3-2 h, 0-0 a) in the last four.

Previous Meetings

There has been just one previous Uefa contest between the clubs, Roma prevailing 3-2 on aggregate in the2014/15 Uefa Europa League round of 32 when they followed up a 1-1 first-leg draw at the Stadio Olimpico with an incident-packed 2-1 victory in Rotterdam in which three players – one from Fred Rutten's Feyenoord, two from Rudi Garcia's Roma – were sent off.

Roma's record in Uefa competition against Dutch clubs is W4 D4 L2. They have won all four of their previous knockout ties against opponents from the Netherlands, the latest against Vitesse in this season's round of 16, and are unbeaten in their last seven games against Eredivisie sides, drawing all four at home and winning all three away.

Feyenoord have faced Italian opposition in 14 Uefa encounters (W5 D4 L5). The elimination by Roma seven years ago was their only aggregate knockout defeat by a Serie A side, the two other ties having both brought victory, most notably in the semifinal of their triumphant 2001/02 Uefa Cup campaign, when Bert van Marwijk's side eliminated Inter (1-0 a, 2-2 h).

Form guide

Roma

Roma finished seventh in Serie A last season, 29 points behind champions Inter, to become Italy's first Uefa Europa Conference League representatives. After topping their 2020/21 Uefa Europa League group, which included Young Boys, CFR Cluj and CSKA-Sofia, Paulo Fonseca's side eliminated Braga, Shakhtar Donetsk and Feyenoord's arch-rivals Ajax in the knockout phase, only to bow out to Manchester United in the semifinals.

Now led by another Portuguese coach, Mourinho, Roma won both legs of their Uefa Europa Conference Leagueplay-off against Trabzonspor, and although Bodø/Glimt got the better of them in their Group C head-to-head encounters, the Giallorossi took maximum points off both CSKA-Sofia (5-1 h, 3-2 a) and Zorya Luhansk (3-0 a, 4-0 h)to finish a point ahead of their Norwegian rivals at the top of the group.

Abraham scored the decisive goal against both Vitesse and Leicester as well as opening the scoring in the second leg of the quarterfinal at home to Bodø/Glimt, in which Nicolò Zaniolo hit a hat-trick. Roma's record in the competition proper is W7 D3 L2.

While this is Roma's third appearance in a major Uefa final, and first for 31 years, it is Mourinho's fifth. He has been triumphant in each of the previous four – with Porto in the 2003 Uefa Cup and 2004 Uefa Champions League, Interin the 2010 Uefa Champions League and Manchester United in the 2017 Uefa Europa League. He has, however, lost two Uefa Super Cups.

Despite being hit for six by both Manchester United and Bodø/Glimt on recent excursions abroad, Roma have found the net in all of their last 14 European fixtures outside the Italian capital (W9 D1 L4).

The last time they failed to score on the road in Europe was in their last encounter on neutral territory, when they lost 2-0 to Sevilla in the German city of Duisburg in the 2019/20 Uefa Europa League round of 16.

This is Roma's first Uefa game in Albania.

Feyenoord

Fifth in the Dutch Eredivisie last season, also 29 points in arrears of the champions, Ajax, Feyenoord secured their fifth European group stage appearance in six seasons by coming through three Uefa Europa Conference League qualifying rounds at the expense of Drita, Luzern and Elfsborg.

The Rotterdam club had failed to make further progress in four successive European group stage participations until this season, most recently finishing third in their Uefa Europa League section last term under Dick Advocaat, but had no such difficulties with Slot at the helm in Uefa Europa Conference League Group E, taking four points off both Slavia (2-1 h, 2-2 a) and Maccabi Haifa (0-0 a, 2-1 h) and all six off Union Berlin (3-1 h, 2-1 a) before putting 17 goals in total past Partizan, Slavia and Marseille in the knockout phase. Feyenoord are undefeated in the competition proper with eight wins and four draws.

This is Feyenoord's first European final since they lifted the Uefa Cup for the second time 20 years ago, defeating Dortmund 3-2 at their own stadium in Rotterdam with goals from Pierre van Hooijdonk (two) and Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Their only previous major Uefa final on neutral territory was their 2-1 win against Celtic in 1970, although they lost the 2002 Uefa Super Cup 3-1 to Madrid in Monaco.

Feyenoord's record on the road in the Uefa Europa Conference League is W5 D3 L1, their sole defeat, home or away, in the competition a 1-3 reverse at Elfsborg in the second leg of the qualifying play-offs after they had won 5-0in Rotterdam.

The Dutch club have made one previous visit to Albania in Uefa club competition, drawing 0-0 against Partizani in Tirana's Qemal Stafa Stadium – since demolished and replaced at the same location by the National Arena – in the first leg of the 1991/92 European Cup Winners' Cup first round. Feyenoord won the second leg 1-0 in Rotterdam.

Previous Uefa finals

Roma (W0 L2)

1984 European Cup 1-1 v Liverpool (aet; 3-4 on pens)

1991 Uefa Cup 1-2 agg v Inter

Feyenoord (W4 L1)

1970 European Cup 2-1 v Celtic (aet)

1970 European/South America Cup 3-2 agg v Estudiantes

1974 Uefa Cup 4-2 agg v Tottenham Hotspur

2002 Uefa Cup 3-2 v Borussia Dortmund

2002 Uefa Super Cup 1-3 v Real Madrid

Links and Trivia

Roma's Dutch right-back Rick Karsdorp was a Feyenoord player from 2014 to 2017 before leaving for Italy and also spent 2019/20 back on loan at the Rotterdam club. Over his two spells he made 123 appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals.

Roma's Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Feyenoord's Reiss Nelson are both on loan to their respective clubs from Arsenal.

Nelson and Abraham are former England Under-21 teammates, while the Feyenoord loanee also played with Roma's Henrikh Mkhitaryan at Arsenal in the second half of 2017/18.

Roma defender Marash Kumbulla has played twice for Albania at Tirana's National Arena – a 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Poland (0-1) in October 2021 and a friendly against Georgia (0-0) in March this year.

Although Roma have never won a Uefa club competition, they were Inter-Cities Fairs Cup winners in 1961, beating Birmingham City 4-2 on aggregate in the final (2-0 h, 2-2 a).

Dessers and Abraham have both scored at least once against all the opponents their teams have faced since the start of the group stage.

Penalty shoot-outs

Roma's record in four Uefa penalty shoot-outs is W1 L3:

4-2 v Norrköping, 1982/83 Uefa Cup second round 3-4 v Liverpool, 1983/84 European Champion Clubs' Cup final

3-4 v Real Zaragoza, 1986/87 European Cup Winners' Cup first round6-7 v Arsenal, 2008/09 Uefa Champions League round of 16

Feyenoord's record in two Uefa penalty shoot-outs is W2 L0:

5-3 v Sion, 1991/92 European Cup Winners' Cup second round

5-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2001/02 Uefa Cup quarterfinal