Roma 3-0 Barcelona: 5 things we learned


Barcelona's pragmatism has been a recurring theme this season 

In last week's first leg at the Camp Nou, Barcelona were not all that impressive. But a mixture of fortune and incisiveness saw them take an extremely comfortable 4-1 lead back to Rome. 

In the second leg, Roma had the perfect start after Edin Dzeko latched onto a defence-splitting through-ball to open the scoring for the home side. 

From the early stages, the comeback felt on. But surely Lionel Messi would do something - dribble from deep, convert a free-kick, anything? Not today.

This was the perfect performance from Roma. They dominated possession and took the game to Barcelona, all the while limiting them to pot-shots and set pieces and were well worth their second and third goals in the second half.

Barcelona were far too passive and paid the price, finally responding with changes only once Roma got the vital third goal. 

But it was too late from Ernesto Valverde. That their best opportunity fell to Ousmane Dembele from 35 yards out says it all. 

Here are five things we learned from the game:

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