On a rainy day in Rome, Roma secured all three points in a game they never looked like relinquishing,despite the close scorline, thanks to goals from Simplicio, Borriello and Perrotta. Siniša Mihaljović continues his fairly poor start to his Fiorentina managerial career with a lacklustre performance from his side.
Starting Line Ups:
AS Roma:
Júlio Sérgio
Cicinho Mexès N. Burdisso Riise
De Rossi
Simplício Greco
Totti Menez
Borriello
Roma played with a formation that vaguely resembled a 4-3-2-1 formation (Christmas Tree), however Totti's and Menez's positions weren't strictly defined, with Totti wandering into space and dropping deep to collect the ball, while Menez would flit from flank to flank, wandering his way around the pitch. De Rossi sat deepest of the midfield trio, winning the ball and spraying it out wide, where Cicinho and Riise regularly overlapped.
Fiorentina:
Boruc
De Silvestri Gamberini Natali Pasquale
Donadel
Santana
Marchionni Vargas
Mutu Gilardino
Fiorentina played a 4-4-2 formation, with Donadel playing behind Mario Santana, a normal winger. Marchionni and Vargas didn't play out wide as regular wingers, but still ran down the right and left flanks respectively. Mutu regularly dropped back to collect the ball, leaving Gilardino out on his own up front.
Early Minutes:
Roma controlled possession from the off, passing the ball about with their midfield three, as they had an extra man in the centre of midfield. While this enabled them to have the majority of the ball, it also meant that they could not play with wingers, so they instead relied on width from the overlapping runs of Riise, and to a lesser extent, Cicinho. The Norwegian received much of the ball on the left flank in the opening twenty minutes, but the quality of his crossing was poor, often failing to beat the first man. Another way in which Roma tried to attack was by putting balls down the left for Borriello to run for. This resulted in a chance for Borriello to score in the 11th minute, but he dragged his shot wide. The greatest threat for Fiorentina was down the left flank, where Vargas, Pasquale and Gilardino connected well, playing little triangles. Vargas was particularly a threat to Roma, running right down the throat of the Roma defence, especially as Cicinho's positioning looked questionable at times. In the 27th minute, Santana's long range strike was fumbled by Júlio Sérgio and it took a good tackle from Nicolás Burdisso to deny Gilardino from tapping in an easy goal.
Roma Breakthrough:
Roma gave the game a breath of fresh air when in the 45th minute, a driven shot by Riise from the left of the penalty area deflected of Borriello and found its way to Simplício, who simply tapped it in from close range. Until then, the game was played at a laboured pace, but now that Fiorentina had to score they pushed on in the second half which led to a more open game.
Changes in the Second Half:
Francesco Totti had a horrible game from the off, where in the second minute he miss-kicked the ball from twenty yards out. His passing was woeful, spraying them off target, which could only be described as resembling a sawn-off shotgun. Despite this, a fabulous cross field pass from Totti found Menez on the right flank, where he dribbled past Pasquale and squared the ball for Borriello to finish into the net. Roma started to sit back on their lead, but a substitution from Siniša Mihaljović changed the game in Fiorentina's favour. In the 60th minute, Mihaljović put on his compatriot Adem Ljajić for Vargas, whose influence on the game by now had diminished. Santana was pulled to the left with Ljajić replacing him in the middle. The player from Novi Pazar added a directness to Fiorentina's attack with his trickery and Mihaljović's substitution paid off in the 69th minute, where Gilardino side-footed a Ljajić cross from the right. Fiorentina's hopes of pulling level, however, diminished when Simone Perrotta scored a freak-goal in the 77th minute.
Boruc Mistake:
Phillipe Mexès cleared the ball from his own half, where the workman-like Perrotta chased hard for it. Boruc came out of his goal to clear the ball, but when attempting to kick the ball away, he miss-kicked it as the ball bounced underneath his foot. Its worth seeing on YouTube. Perrotta ran onto the ball and capitalised by slotting the ball past Gamberini into the net. Fiorentina pressed while Roma looked potent on the break, with Daniele De Rossi pumping the ball forward for Borriello to run on for. Fiorentina were also sloppy in possession in their own half, where Borriello often won the ball back for the Romans. Fiorentina pulled a goal back when D'Agostino scored a fabulous goal from a free-kick from 20 yards in the 89th minute. He curled the ball into the top corner, leaving Júlio Sérgio routed to the spot. However, it only proved to be a consolation goal as Roma held on for the victory.
Statistics:
45' Simplício Goal 1-0
51' Borriello Goal 2-0
69' Gilardino Goal 2-1
77' Perrotta Goal 3-1
89' D'Agostino Goal 3-2
Roma Fiorentina
60% Possession 40%
15 Shots 9
8 Shots on Goal 4
6 Corners 5
2 Offsides 4
9 Fouls 11
1 Yellow Cards 3
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