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Roma throw away the advantage, and draw 1-1 with Inter
Posted - 28th February 2008
Think back to the start of the season, when for a precious few games Roma held the lead and had scudetto dreams very much alive. The moment when things changed for them was a dissapointing draw with Juventus, followed by a routing by Inter. The game with Inter, back then, was changed utterly by a foolhardy move by French attacking midfielder Ludovic Giuly, when he made a brilliant save early in the first half - unfortunately with his hand. Inter took fool advantage of their numerical superiority and beat Roma 3-1 on that occasion.
The difference, then, can be eloquently summed up by last night's encounter. The teams were evenly matched throughout the first half. Inter started with Hernan Crespo as their lone striker up front, supported by Figo and Stankovic, who looked dangerous throughtout the match. Roma meanwhile, characteristically looked dangerous on the counter-attack. The deadlock was broken by Francesco Totti, Roma's captain, who put his team up 1-0 towards the close of the first half with a well taken goal from a cross by Tonetto, beating former Roma defender and Romanian national squad captain Christian Chivu in the process.
On top of the goal advantage, luck favoured Roma early in the second-half, when Inter found themselves in the luckless position of seeing Maxwell stretchered off having already used up their allocated substitutes. Roma with one goal up, and numerical superiority should have been able to close the game down, and take advantage to score a second goal. They've shown themselves able to defend a 1-0 lead in the past, as recently as the weekend when they dispatched Fiorentina with an inelegant narrow victory.
And therein lies the difference between the teams. Instead of holding the line, Roma effectively threw away the match carelessly, allowing Inter to remain in the game, and to snatch a draw in the closing moments.
A certain amount of blame must go towards French defender Philippe Mexes who ridiculously picked up a yellow card for prematurely re-entering the field of play after having gone off momentarily for treatment. Given the determination of the Inter attack, and in particular Hernan Crespo (who has something to prove, fighting for his place in the team), a defender with a yellow card was always going to be a liability. And so it was, as shortly afterwards Mexes executed a clumsy tackle on Crespo, and found himself receiving marching orders for his second yellow.
The rest of the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of the attack - with both Aquilani and Perrotta missing great chances to finish the game off. The after-game complaints of captain Francesco Totti, that Mexes sending off was a huge help to Inter are troublesome, displaying a remarkable inability to face facts. The game was there for the taking, and Roma failed miserably to do so.
Inter came back in the final minutes, when all seemed lost, with a powerful right footer from captain Javier Zanetti. Inter now retain a nine point lead over Roma - who, even should they draw level, has the disadvantage of the results of their encounters to contend with.
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