It was a busy night of European football on Thursday with all eight quarter final first legs taking place of the Europa League and Europa Conference League.
There was no shortage of talking points across the action with plenty of goals and red cards but it was not a glorious night for either Barcelona or Roma. Indeed, the respective coaches of each side opted to use a similar excuse after their side’s fell to below-par results.
Both Xavi Hernandez and Jose Mourinho blamed the state of the pitch for their outcomes against Eintracht Frankfurt – were Barca were held to a 1-1 draw against ten men but were largely second best - and Bodo/Glimt – were Roma fell to a 2-1 loss - respectively. Indeed, the Norwegian champions had already humiliated Roma earlier in the campaign – beating them 6-1 in the group stage, in what was the worst result of Mourinho’s managerial career.
