Champions League: Roma v Sporting

Roma turned in a convincing 2-1 home win over Sporting to secure second place in Group F today, but the three points may have been costly, with Francesco Totti limping off just before the half with an ankle injury (it wasn’t to The Ankle, at least, so there is that). Uh-oh. Given Roma’s injury list, they certainly can’t afford to lose anyone else, particularly not The Great One.

Apart form Totti’s knock, however, Roma’s performance sounds like a very encouraging recovery, both from the loss to Man U and the goal-leaking spectacle against Napoli on the weekend. Reports make it sound like they dominated much of the match* and created multiple scoring opportunities (still some trouble with that whole finishing thing, though), despite still missing several key players and sending out something of a make-shift lineup. In particular, the capitol club had a ton of chances early and took the lead after only 15 minutes on a Juan header, only to give up the equalizer minutes later and go into the half tied 1-1.

Roma were awarded a PK just after the restart, but Mancini had it saved by Sporting’s altogether shaky backup keeper, a miss which earned him the wrap of the Olympico crowd. (Of course, had he still been on to take the PK, chances would have been about 50-50 that Totti would have missed it, too. But would he have been booed? Of course not.) Happily for Mancini, however, Mirko Vucinic — Totti’s replacement — went on a solo run with about 20 minutes left and created a spectacular goal out of nothing, thus killing off Sporting, and saving Mancini from death threats, at least for the moment.

In the other Group F match, Man U thumped Dynamo Kiev, so Sir Alex’s club are three points clear at the top with a perfect nine points from the three matches. Roma stand alone in second with six from the three, three above Sporting, and six clear of the winless Ukrainian side.

Edit: Chris has got his report up. 

*Or not — see the comments.

Category: Champions League, Results, Roma, Serie A

Tags: Champions League, Mancini, Results, Roma, Serie A, Sporting Lisbon, Totti, Vucinic

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