Roma and Feyenoord drew 1-1 on Thursday evening at the Stadio Olimpico in the Europa League last 32, first leg.
Gervinho opened the scoring with the first goal conceded by the the Rotterdam-based outfit in 306 minutes of European action. However, Colin Kazim-Richards pulled Feyenoord level in the second half to leave the tie perfectly balanced heading into next week’s second leg.
Feyenoord began in confident mood, with lanky Lex Immers heading wide after five minutes.
At the other end, Daniele Verde played Gervinho in nicely only for the Ivorian to scuff his shot wide.
The Dutch side were getting a lot of joy down their right flank through full-back Luke Wilkshire’s regular forays forward, but his crosses weren’t finding their target.
Australian international Wilkshire then went into the referee’s notebook after a poor challenge on 17 minutes.
Hosts Roma began getting a grip on the game thereafter and took the lead thanks to Gervinho in the 22nd minute.
It was a beautifully worked move involving Vasilis Torosidis and Daniele Verde, which saw the Greek defender slide his young colleague through to cross perfectly from the right edge of the box into Gervinho’s path.
That same trio linked up again just three minutes later, but Gervinho fluffed his first touch allowing Feyenoord goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer a chance to smother the ball.
There was an early substitution required by the away side when Wilkshire limped off to be replaced by makeshift right-back Rick Karsdorp, thus upsetting Feyenoord’s rhythm.
Colin Kazim-Richards tried a snapshot as the half wound down, but Polish ‘keeper Lukasz Skorupski was equal to the effort.
Lex Immers sent a fizzing shot just wide in injury-time as a reminder that Roma’s job still wasn’t done.
The visitors entered the second period with a great deal of purpose and it paid off ten minutes after the restart.
Lex Immers’ powerful header was wonderfully tipped on to the post by Skorupski following a cross from the right, but Feyenoord striker Kazim-Richards was on hand to place the rebound into the net for a crucial away goal scored from a suspected offside position.
Immers was booked during the resultant celebrations, which means both he and Wilkshire are banned for the second leg next week.
Veterans Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi were replaced by recent signing Seydou Doumbia and Seydou Keita midway through the second half, with Karim El Ahmadi firing wide shortly after to show Feyenoord’s enduring ambition.
Jens Toornstra then struck a free-kick from 25 yards, which Skorupski inexplicably spilled wide for a corner as proceedings neared the final quarter of an hour.
Alessandro Florenzi came on for the final 15 minutes in place of 18-year-old starlet Daniele Verde, who’d once again showcased his undoubted potential on his European debut for the Giallorossi.
Khalid Boulahrouz had to be at his best to put off sub Seydou Doumbia with a lunging challenge towards the end. Seconds later, Doumbia missed again from a good position to leave the scores tied at 1-1.
