Roma v Inter: Holy Crap

By: Martha | September 29th, 2007

Whoa. It’s amazing what playing against 10 men for over an hour will do for a team’s confidence, huh? Inter were on the stroll for most of the second half, locking the game down with three quick goals after Simone Perotta drew Roma level (off a lovely assist from the ever-generous Maxwell), and stroking the ball around like they know how to play, or something.

It didn’t start out that way, though. Inter opened with only one striker and tried valiantly to clog up the midfield, but the first few minutes were all Roma, and they had two real chances when Julio Cesar got down well to save both a Totti free kick and then Mancini’s quick shot off the rebound. Eventually, Inter settled down and had some possession, but Juan and Mexes were making life hell for The Great Zlatan, who could get no service, and was equally ineffective when he dropped deep to get touches (and then gave the ball away over and over again).

The game broke open in the 29th minute, when Totti played a lazy pass on a short corner: Maxwell picked it off and tore up field, putting Cesar in alone on Doni who made a great save. Sadly for Roma, though, the rebound went right to Zlatan whose header was kept from the back of the next by the hand of little Guily. Oops. He was sent off, Zlatan put the penalty away (barely), and the rout was on.

To be fair, despite the blowout scoreline (Inter’s second-half goals were from Crepo (Oh my GOD what a finish), Cruz and Cordoba), Roma weren’t really dominated in possession until the last half hour or so. They put Inter under periodic pressure but never tested Julio Cesar after Perotta’s goal, and apart from Maxwell’s giveaway in the box that created that goal, Inter defense rarely put a step wrong. Javier Zanetti, in particular, was virtually flawless — he’s been playing like he was 25 since Maicon got suspended and allowed him to move back to his original ~~left~~ right back spot; it’s almost too bad for Inter that Maicon only has one more game left to sit out.

Bad news for both teams on the injury front, though: Zlatan picked up a foot injury at the start of the second half and Olivier Dacourt, who was playing great for Inter, pulled up with what looked like a pretty serious groin strain. On the other side of the ball, Roma were forced to finish the match with only nine players when Perrotta went off with a muscle problem; no word yet on how bad his injury is.