Berne (Switzlerland): AS Roma suffered another European humiliation on Tuesday when they had two players sent off, lost 0-3 at home to Porto and missed out on the Champions League group stage.
After drawing 1-1 in Portugal in the first leg of the playoff tie, Roma started as favourites but never recovered after Felipe gave the visitors an eighth-minute lead.
They imploded completely when Daniele De Rossi and his replacement Emerson Palmieri were shown straight red cards either side of halftime. Monaco joined Porto when they beat Villarreal 1-0 after a late penalty by Fabinho sealed a 3-1 aggregate win, and Legia Warsaw, Celtic and Ludogorets Razgrad also qualified, although none of them won on the night.
Ten-man Legia drew 1-1 at home with Irish part-timers Dundalk, but progressed 3-1 on aggregate to become the first Polish side to reach the group stage of Europe’s premier club competition for 20 years.
Former European champions Celtic squeezed past Hapoel Beer Sheva 5-4 on aggregate despite a 2-0 loss in Israel and Ludogorets held Viktoria Plzen 2-2 away to secure a 4-2 aggregate win.
Roma became the third successive Serie ‘A’ team, and the sixth in the last eight seasons, to lose in the playoff round, leaving Italy with only Juventus and Napoli in Thursday’s group-stage draw.
Roma have had their fair share of recent European disasters after losing 1-6 to Barcelona last season and 1-7 at home to Bayern Munich two years ago, but not even they could have imagined how this game would unfold.
