Stronger than everything. From the cold attitude, from the absence, from Ayroldi’s confused whistle, fortunately corrected by VAR, from the goal post and the goal disallowed for an offside kneecap. Rome stopped no longer. They also beat Cremona 3-1 and returned to the top of the standings alone. Whoever thinks that after 12 days we can still talk about opportunities, luck or episodes, calmly continues to do so. Gasperini laughed and looked forward, supported by the team following him as did the children of Lower Saxony to the melody played by piper Hamelin. Is that a legend? Does not matter. Because what Roma is experiencing is a dream that no one wants to wake up from. First of all Soulé. The Argentinian, yesterday able to escape the systematic double of Vandeputte and Floriani Mussolini, continues to score goals and who knows, sooner or later the Argentinian coach Scaloni will also notice this. Since March, since the free kick at Parma, Matias has looked different. From a player who was smoky and ended up on his own, he slowly turned into a team player. Ranieri shaped him but Gasp finished the job by convincing him he could be a decisive striker. With yesterday’s goal he scored his sixth of the season, fifth in the league and after the 2-0 against Verona (which was also important in some ways), he always scores heavy goals. Which unblocks races like in Cremona (in Pisa and Glasgow) or gets them back on track (Florence). The cynical and carefree Roma who looked down on everyone thus had the happy face of the boy from Mar del Plata but also the sure hand of Svilar, the sporting evil of Mancini, the quality of Pellegrini, the sacrificial spirit of Cristante and Koné, the various runs of Celik, El Aynaoui and Wesley (author of the 3-0 score that closed the match), plus listening, listening to the will and persistence of Baldanzi in the false version of the nine and the incredulous look of Ferguson, who returned to score after 393 days with the club team (the last goal was against Wolverhampton). We have reached almost a third of the tournament and no, as Gasp, the creator of this sporting masterpiece, repeats, this Rome is not a miracle. However, it is the work of the 67 year old man on the bench that is slowly capturing the hearts of his fans. Without proclamations or slogans but only with work and results.
EXPERIMENTS AND SOLUTIONS
Another one arrived in Cremona but the final score of 3-1 was not deceiving. For an hour there was a balance on the pitch with Nicola trying to make things difficult for the Giallorossi, initially passing on Vasquez to widen the Giallorossi defense who on this occasion put Ziolkowski in the middle on the left. Two very wide players (Vardy on the left and Payero on the right) with Bonazzoli and Vandeputte alternately ready to come in from the back. Both had three chances, but found themselves facing a decisive Svilar, even with the help of the goal post. However, among the three opportunities for the red and gray, there were two Roma goals in the middle. A beautiful goal from outside the box by Soulé, after being pushed through by Koné, another goal was saved by Pellegrini, canceled out by millimeters by VAR. The Giallorossi were in control, also almost doubling the score (a miracle Audero performed on Pellegrini who beat Celik for giving him the ball without a low shot) and were only unnerved by a whistle from Ayroldi which then led to Gasperini being sent off in the second half. First the referee penalized Ziolkowki (but not before a foul not called on Wesley); then he did not whistle for a counter foul by Bianchetti and in the same action he awarded a penalty for Mancini’s wrist touch on Barbieri’s shot which was ruled out by an on-field review, therefore not punishable. Roma changed their face in the second half: El Aynaoui came on and Ziolkowski came off with Cristante central on the right. It seemed like a gamble and it was Roma who took advantage of it with improvements in ball delivery which then led to the game being closed on the counter-attack. In this case, the arrival of Ferguson and El Shaarawy was decisive. First the Irish, served by El Aynaoui, and then Wesley (assisted by Pharaoh) provided another Sunday to remember. In full recovery, Folino’s goal updated the scoreboard but did not change the substance. Roma are there, scoring three goals for the first time this season and are in first place in the standings. So three thousand fans in Cremona, despite their superstitions, spent the final minutes of the match singing the historic song associated with the scudetto. After all, dreaming doesn’t cost anything.
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© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
