Empoli v Roma: Oh. My. God.

By: Martha | November 4th, 2007

It looked so promising Shocking. Roma’s second(ish) team — ~~interestingly, given the recent discussions here, without a single Italian in it~~ Lies! All lies! Millions of wonderful Italians! — utterly owned the first half, cutting Empoli open at will and playing the magic, one-touch football for which they’re known. They scored two wonderful team goals and had the game well in hand going into the break. Empoli, meanwhile, were every inch the relegation side, squandering set pieces, unable to put the ball on goal, and defending like a really, really bad park league team. (Mancini can turn anyone inside out, but to allow endless free headers and let people run into the box with bothering to get within five yards them is just inexcusable.)

The second half opened brighter for Empoli who actually managed to force a couple of saves out of Doni in the Roma goal, but the visitors were always the better team and continued to embarrass the Empoli defense; it was only Mirko Vucinic’s outright refusal to score when he was in alone (twice) that kept Roma from at least doubling their lead. Empoli kept fighting, though, and eventually a miracle happened: Ighli Vannucchi crushed a shot from at least 25 yards out that froze Doni and flew into the back of the net, hauling Empoli back within striking distance with just over 20 minutes left in the match.

From then on, it was a dogfight. The coherence had gone out of Roma’s attacks (Mancini, who was probably their best player in the first half, was nowhere to be found for most of the second), and Empoli were suddenly up for it, attacking eagerly and defending resolutely, if not exactly well. They weren’t peppering Doni’s goal with shots, but they were in the Roma half a lot, and began to accumulate free kicks and corner; it was perhaps inevitable that they’d make good use of one eventually. That one came just at the start of injury time, when substitute Sebastian Giovinco floated in a free kick (probably a cross that he’ll claim was a shot) from wide on the right that drifted over Doni’s head and slipped right under the bar. Empoli had about two minutes of terror to endure afterwards, but they survived and took a point from Roma, who have only themselves to blame for not being joint top with Inter right now.