Sergey Shevchenko - about the sensational success of the Roman club.
Francesco Totti benefits Roma and after the end of his career. The Emperor participated in the draw of the quarter-finals of the Champions League and personally pulled out to his club a ball with Barcelona. Photo with smiling Cesco flew all football-humorous public. Who would have thought that Totti had turned the story in the right direction? Meeting with the Catalan grandee gave Rome a real miracle. This night the Eternal City sang, danced and launched fireworks. President Roma James Pallotta climbed to the fans in the fountain in Piazza del Popolo, and the official club twitter after the final whistle issued a message that best conveys emotions from what happened. Miracle!.
As Deportivo "Camback" on Tuesday evening, if they waited, it is by no means in Rome (although the visionary Alex Ferguson did not choose to visit the game in Manchester for his personal visit, having gone to the capital of Italy). Barcelona, ??and so being the clear favorite of the pair, came to Stadio Olimpico with a three-goal handicap. What here intrigue? The most characteristic feature of the situation is the bookmakers'. To win Roma in the second leg gave a coefficient of 5, and the pass "dzhallorossi" was evaluated in slaughter 26 or 29. A hopeless situation for the Italians, exacerbated by the negative information background: Serie A, it's no longer the same, in the quarterfinals, one defeat, the real Champions League begins with the semi-finals ... Such circumstances have already been in the history of the Champions League, and it's not about Barcelona 6: 1 last year - in the end, the sensation was the original Parisian 4: 0. Where is the more appropriate analogy - season-2003/2004 and the confrontation between Milan and Deportivo. The craziest rally of the Champions League, when the ground left under your feet, and your eyes refused to believe. Milan was beautiful and all powerful. He already owned the main trophy of Europe, but played even stronger than a year earlier. "Rossoneri" won the first match with a score of 4: 1 (!) And seemed to have resolved all the issues, but the club from La Coruna was nicknamed "Superdepore". Galicians at home gave the hurricane first half, and the victory 4-0 became the Champions League classics. It's a bit sad to remember this against the background of news about modern Deportivo.
After 14 years, football Europe shocked another quite stellar team. Roma has long deserved to be in the spotlight. This is a bright, colorful and popular club with excellent support for fans, who, alas, historically played poorly in European competition. "Wolves" were remembered, more likely, devastating defeats from Manchester United and Bavaria. If you leave the brackets season-1983/84, when Roma, the only time participating in the KECH, reached the finals, then the quarterfinal of the main Euro tournament was submitted to her only the third time. Semi-final is a new milestone not only for the Romans, but for all Italian football. If you take the period from the formation of the Champions League in the season-1992/93, then this stage was held exclusively by the clubs of the "big three" (Milan, Juventus, Inter). Sometimes the crisis turns into new opportunities.
How Sassuolo Like Eusebio Di Francesco. The coach, whose arrival in Roma was perceived ambiguously - this, however, is inevitable in the case of young and inexperienced specialists. DiFra, as he is sometimes cut by the Italian media, holds his debut season in the Champions League, but in European competition he debuted at the head of Sassuolo. This provincial team made a little noise in the European League-2016/17, although it did not leave the group. The best match "neverdi" was a home game with Athletic from Bilbao. Sassuolo won 3: 0 (!), And coached Basques is none other than Ernesto Valverde. Who would have thought that history would repeat a year later with a little at a much higher level?.
Tactics - the tip of the teacher Roma. He "Nerd" even by Italian standards. His Roma changed style in the course of the season, and Shakhtar managed to pass in the 1/8 finals at the expense of preparing for a specific opponent. The Romans in the second leg did not compete with the "miners" in possession of the ball, but deliberately put on a long vertical transmission, one of which gave the result.
The match with Barcelona became the triumph of the thought of Di Francesco. Roma for the first time in the season used the scheme with three central defenders, and it worked for one hundred percent. "Dzhallorossi" from the first minutes imposed on the opponent aggressive pressure and transferred the game to the most inconvenient for the Barca riverbed. Advantage of Roma was physical strength, while the guests, although more often owned the ball, and did not establish a grass-roots combination game, straying into long transfers - 83 "longball" against 65 in the hosts. The Romans, in turn, played great on rebounds, which was provided by a high game of flank defenders (Kolarova and Florenci), turned into laterals - both in this role are especially good. In addition, finally it was possible to use Patrick Schick in place of the second striker. Czech, who all season fell out of the construction of Roma, in an extra-heavy match was useful (dribbling, Jackie's dodging) and earned the Olimpico applause when replacing.
La Gazzetta dello Sport put Di Francesco a "nine" - in fact, the highest score. This match provides the mentor Roma a hefty credit of trust, and is also an application for the title of top coach. By the way, the Roman Corriere dello Sport did not bother with the ratings, putting every representative of Roma extraordinary 10 points.
As Roma Another historical analogy relates directly to the two culprits of the celebration. Roma and Barcelona met in the second group stage of Champions League-2001/02. The layouts then were somewhat different, so the victory of the current champions of Italy over the crisis Barca few were surprised ("jallorossi", however, did not leave the group). It is striking to just score - 3: 0 in favor of the Romans!.
Daniele De Rossi then did not take part in matches with Barcelona, ??but already made his debut for Roma. Now his career is coming to the finish line, and it definitely lacked a loud success with his native club (the 2000 Roma-2000/01 champion Daniele found himself playing for Primavera). Worse, this season was unsuccessfully for De Rossi: a rebound in the away match with Sweden, an own goal at the Camp Nou, just unsuccessful matches. The return game with Barcelona showed that the old wolf still bites: 59 assists (more than Iniesta or Busquets), scoring at Dzheko and composure at the penalty kick. "This is one of the happiest days in Roma!", - the captain of "jallorossi", believe me, did not bend his heart.
All the players from Roma became the heroes of the second match, but especially Costas Manolas and Edin Dzeko. The Greek, who is reasonably considered to be the weakest link in the team, this time turned into a myth character who always had time on the defensive and scored the decisive ball - a twist of the plot with a double correction for own goals. Jack did "make the difference": won the fight, earned fouls, scored the most important ball. Have not forgotten that Costas and Edin were on the verge of leaving Rome? Manolasa in the summer almost bought Zenit, Jack in the winter claimed Chelsea.
Surprisingly, but Roma even remained a margin of safety in the face of Alisson, the Brazilian only several times entered the game. Sensations of this magnitude are usually accompanied by luck, but in this pair, if anyone was lucky, it is clearly not the Romans who, in the first match, did not deserve a major defeat. Honored - the best epithet for the victory of the Italian club. Kalko is still alive, gentlemen!.
Sergey Shevchenko Author: Sergey Shevchenko.