Roma's gladiators put Barca to sword

Barca's usually deadly two-pronged attack of Messi and Luis Suarez hardly threatened as Roma dominated possession for long stretches and stifled the Catalan club with high-tempo tactics.

Roma capitalized on its aerial threat through Dzeko and Patrik Schick while its well-drilled defense forced Barcelona into a series of uncharacteristic misplaced passes.

"They showed attitude and for whatever reason we didn't know how to respond or to make chances," Barcelona midfielder Sergio Busquets said. "For that reason they were better in all aspects tonight."

This marks the first time Roma has reached the last four since it lost the 1984 final to Liverpool on penalties in its own stadium－and it's the third straight year that Barcelona has been eliminated at this stage.

"It's a possibility that this might be my last game in the Champions League but right now this is hard for all the team, all of us," Barcelona captain Andrea Iniesta said after playing in a record-setting 22nd Champions League quarterfinal.

"We so wanted to win this tournament but we've failed to do so again.

"It's really tough. It seems untrue. Very hard to accept. With the advantage we had we went out because we really did things badly. The Champions League punishes you for that."

Liverpool also reached the semifinals after recovering from conceding a goal inside two minutes against Manchester City to win 2-1 thanks to second-half strikes by former Roma striker Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

Only two clubs had previously overturned at least a three-goal first-leg deficit in the Champions League－Deportivo La Coruna beat AC Milan 4-0 after losing the opening leg 4-1 in the 2004 quarterfinals and Barcelona routed Paris Saint-Germain 6-1 after losing the first game 4-0 in last season's last 16.

"When you lose a match like this you think about everything that went wrong. You analyze things," Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde said through a translator when asked if he would take the blame for the loss.

"We had a great opportunity but we were just not good enough to seize it."

Roma captain De Rossi set Dzeko on his way for Roma's first goal before the big Bosnian striker muscled off defenders to shoot past Marc-Andre ter Stegen with his left foot.

Suarez became so frustrated at his lack of supply from midfield that he slammed both hands on the pitch on one occasion.

Dzeko was at it again after the break with a show of brute force, shrugging off Gerard Pique and Umtiti to approach the goal. Pique then grabbed Dzeko's left arm and tugged the striker to the ground.

French referee Clement Turpin awarded a penalty and showed Pique a yellow card before De Rossi confidently fired the spot-kick inside the right post past Ter Stegen, despite the German correctly guessing the trajectory.

Ter Stegen was again helpless when Manolas headed inside the far post.

Valverde waited until the final 10 minutes to use all three of his substitutions－Andre Gomes, Ousmane Dembele and Paco Alcacer.

"We had enough experience on the pitch to solve things," the manager said, before adding: "I thought."

AP