Champions League: Comprehensive Destruction
By: Martha | April 10th, 2007
Cripes am I glad that’s over. Looking at poor Spalletti’s face in the stand in about the 80th minute, you could tell he was thinking about sitting in the media room, and the shellacking he was going to take from the press in just a few minutes time. Poor man.
Actually, the postmortem will be interesting: Totti, because of his “This is more exciting that the World Cup” nonsense, could be under some pressure from the press. Spalletti, though, seems like a fairly straight-forward, honest guy — for a manager, at least — and he’d be a fool to say anything but “We were beaten by a better team,” and myriad variations thereof. Because, while the Roma defense and Doni were, to put it kindly, poor, Man U were just utterly fantastic. Virtually their every touch was right on, their shots were true, and they gave the ball away as many times in a half as Roma did in any given three minute sequence. The second half, though it felt a bit better — Roma had a bit of room to breathe, and even put together a few attacks — still saw Man U scoring virtually at will. Unreal. Basically, what we saw tonight was one of the best teams in Europe crushing a pretender. That wasn’t the case last week and might not be the case next week, were another round to be played, but it was undeniably so tonight.
The one positive: Magical goal from de Rossi. It’s too bad it came in the most humiliating game of his life, and that he’ll spend the next several weeks desperately trying to forget it …
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Comments
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And didn’t the ULTRAS do real Roma fans a service by ‘nicking’ all the tickets LOL LOL… reckon they fancy a row now then???
WE’VE GOT MOURINHO
WE’VE GOT MOURINHO
Posted from
United States
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I don’t see why anyone, press or not, would give Totti a hard time. He and De Rossi are about the only ones on the Roma side who can hold their heads up after tonight’s performance.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
They certainly shouldn’t, that’s for sure. But this is the Italian football press, so who knows — they’re almost as bad as their English counterparts.
I’m definitely buying a Gazzetta dello Sport tomorrow to see their player ratings, that’s for sure. Do you think they’ll give Doni or Chivu a 4?
Posted from
United States -
I skipped my CALM class so I could watch this. Worth it? Hate to say it, but I laughed my ass off :D.
Posted from
Canada -
I think Spalletti has it right when he mentions Roma’s ‘inexperience’. Carrick’s goal really rattled them and from there on they got away from doing what they do best, which to me is keeping it compact and attacking at speed from random places. In a way, Scholes’ red card might’ve actually helped expose this weakness, since Roma had slowed their tempo down in the first leg when they felt they had to get a goal to take advantage. Essentially, Roma struggle when pressing.
Anyway, they were outplayed by a better and deeper team. Man Utd were far more comfortable at Old Trafford; this atmosphere should also not be underestimated it its role of unnerving Roma. They were uncomposed and conceded far too much open space, hence the shooting clinic for the Red Devils. A shame Roma couldn’t stick to the gameplan even after Carrick’s opener and try to steal a goal and turn the tide, but all the credit to United for a majestic performance.
Posted from
United States -
I think this proves that it requires more than just skill to fight in the Champions League.
Posted from
Australia -
Totti, or any other Roma player, were hardly good enough not to be criticised. If nothing else Totti should have been a good enough leader to motivate the team to lose by only 3. But anyone who talks about a match as much as Totti and gets done like that deserves to get hammered in the press no matter how good they pay.
Posted from
Australia -
Definately glad I dvr’d that one. Came back here to check after the 2nd goal what had happened. 7-1. I thought it was a joke. Is the Premiership that superior to Serie A?
Posted from
United States -
Muddia, nah, not that much superior. Considering the overall picture, even Lille at least made Man Utd sweat at Old Trafford. And judging by the French standings, Lille are not exactly in the same class as Lyon, whom of course Roma knocked out last round. All this just means that the game is crazy and unpredictable, which makes it all the more fascinating. We should avoid use of sweeping generalizations, though the European successes of English and Spanish (in the UEFA Cup) clubs are definitely tributes to the current strength of their respective leagues.
Posted from
United States -
That was a disaster….Serie A is going to get some massive stick for this one.
Posted from
Canada -
RT, your comments on who’s beaten who reminded me of a friend (former pro player) and his favorite saying: “The transitive property does NOT apply in soccer.” (If ManU beats Lille, and Lyon beats Lille, and Roma beats Lyon, then by extension…) :-)
Posted from
United States -
I take it back. An Italian team is indeed capable of being involved in an entertaining game.
Posted from
United States -
Terrible week for il calcio. What a mess this Italian football is.
And to think tonight may be Maldini’s last in Europe.
Posted from
United States
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