Roma crashed out of the Champions League at the semi-finals stage at the hands of Liverpool on Wednesday night, but they had a classy tweet for former star Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian international was unable to find the back of the net on his return to Rome following his summer transfer to Merseyside, but he was decisive in the first leg.
SEE MORE: Video: James Milner reveals hilarious plan to celebrate Liverpool reaching Champions League final
Liverpool eventually prevailed 7-6 on aggregate to advance to the final in Kiev on May 26 to face Real Madrid, with Roma left to rue their mistakes in the semi-final tie as they fell agonisingly short of making the showpiece event to end the campaign.
However, the social media team at the Italian giants certainly showed their class, as they congratulated Salah on making the final and wished him well with his new club moving forward, as seen in the tweet below.
It hurts so much that #ASRoma’s incredible dream of going all the way to Kiev is over but you’ll be there in your new colours.
Good luck in the #UCL final @MoSalah#ForzaRoma #YNWA pic.twitter.com/BOsVgoKLjI
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) May 2, 2018
However, the mood elsewhere wasn’t positive as both sporting director Monchi and club president James Pallotta were far from impressed with what they saw from the officials.
There were two particularly contentious incidents in the second leg. Firstly, Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared to block a close-range shot with his arm on the line but no penalty was given as it wasn’t seen by the referee.
In the defence of the official on that one, not even the Roma players appealed as they seemingly failed to spot it too.
Meanwhile, Edin Dzeko was flagged for being offside before trying to round Loris Karius, at which point the German shot-stopper brought him down in the box and could have seen red if the whistle hadn’t already gone.
However, replays showed that the Bosnian forward wasn’t actually in an offside position. That led to the angry responses from the club chiefs after the game.
“I’m angry and disappointed, there were two penalties and there was also a red card,” Monchi said after the game, according to Calciomercato. “Italian football must raise its voice, it is not normal what happened, not only to us, but also to Juventus.
“I think that there is a need for VAR, the two penalties would have changed everything.”
Meanwhile, Pallotta was also left unimpressed and was scathing in his attack on a lack of use of VAR in Europe, as he echoed Monchi’s calls for it to be introduced in the Champions League.
“Congratulations to Liverpool but VAR is necessary, we saw that today,” he said, as per La Gazzetta dello Sport. “It is embarrassing that things like this happen in the Champions League. If there is no VAR everything becomes a joke in the face of things like this.”
Roma are of course used to VAR being a crucial part of the game after it was introduced in Italy this season. Whether or not UEFA opt to now roll it out across the board in the major competitions too remains to be seen.