World champions only benchwarmers
Rome shows frustration late on, Hummels doesn’t play along again
September 27, 2024, 12:26 a.m
New signing Mats Hummels is still waiting for his first appearance at AS Roma. The 2014 World Cup winner is once again on the bench in the Europa League draw against Athletic Bilbao and sees the Spaniards concede a very late goal.
Star coach José Mourinho is successful with his new club Fenerbahçe Istanbul, but also started the Europa League with a lot of difficulty. The traditional Turkish club won 2-1 (1-0) against the Belgian representative Union Saint-Gilloise and collected the first three points in the new league format. Caglar Söyüncü (26th) and Christian Burgess (82nd, own goal) scored for Istanbul, Ross Sykes (90th + 3) shortened the score late.
The Turks started the game poorly and were lucky when Franjo Ivanovic hit the post (17th). After taking the lead, Fenerbahce appeared more confident and had little trouble. The red card for Union defender Kevin Mac Allister (73.), the older brother of Argentina’s world champion Alexis Mac Allister, gave Fenerbahçe additional security. In a wild final phase, Bright Osayi-Samuel conceded a penalty and was shown a yellow-red card (90′). Dominik Livakovic parried and was beaten shortly afterwards.
Meanwhile, new signing Mats Hummels is still waiting for his first appearance at AS Roma. The 2014 soccer world champion was once again only on the bench in the 1-1 (1-0) draw against Athletic Bilbao and saw Aitor Paredes concede a late goal (85th). The Ukrainian Artem Dowbyk took the lead (32nd) in his first international game for Roma. AS coach Ivan Juric made five changes during the game, but central defender Hummels was once again not taken into account. The 35-year-old, who joined the club late, played his last game to date on June 1st in the Champions League final for Borussia Dortmund against Real Madrid (1:2).
