“The King of Rome is not dead”. Once again, here’s King Francesco Totti.
The captain comes to the rescue by scoring the late, late penalty in deep injury time, the goal that sends Roma to a double leg semifinal against arch-rivals Lazio.
A fairly easy opponent on paper, Serie B team Cesena eliminated two Serie A teams before getting to play this quarterfinal against Roma. And it turned out to be a very tedious match.
The first half saw Cesena close to take the lead in a few occasions, while Roma played just awful. Did not approach the game seriously. Dzeko’s goal in the second half was a kind of liberation but only lasted a few minutes. An incredible misunderstanding between Allison and Manolas gave Cesena a shocking equaliser. Bad vibes in the air.
But just when the extra time was looming, here comes the referee awarding a dubious penalty. Totti took responsibility and converted. The team did not impress but did qualify thanks to the immortal Captain. Roma are through to the semis against an impressive Lazio who yesterday went to win at the San Siro against an on-form Inter.
However, some our players approached this game the wrong way. Manolas , Paredes and El Sharaawy looked lazy on the pitch. Incidentally those who were at the centre of market talks. Not a single intuition, not a good play. Perotti is another one who is not delivering, and managed to pick up an injury on top of that. We need them badly to perform if we want to win something this year.
Apart from Grenier Roma did not buy other players. Pity. Hope we don’t have to regret it. At least, Totti keeps bringing joy, and he deserves to play more minutes. He still makes the difference. If he is the Mohammed Ali of football, as Spalletti said about him, then let him do the sucker punch once again. Lazio, here we come!
Stefano Sale @ asroma.ie
