CL MD1: Roma - Barcelona (September 16th 2015) [R]

Michael Berk · Sep 17, 2015

Alright, I think I've watched Florenzi's magic at least 100 times. I cannot stop. Addicted.

DCUroma · Sep 17, 2015

Michael Berk said: ↑

Alright, I think I've watched Florenzi's magic at least 100 times. I cannot stop. Addicted.
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Same

DCUroma · Sep 17, 2015

Romanista89 · Sep 17, 2015

La Magica said: ↑

When I get the time I am going to email bt sports and tell them exactly what I think of the line up of cretins they have assembled for champions league coverage. Matt Smith, Steve McManaman and Owen Hargreaves shouldn't be let within 50 feet of a camera or microphone. There total lack of knowledge of top levels teams, players and whats actually going on is too much. Would rather listen to that ginger American.

James Richardson is the only guy who can be listened too.
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The BT Sport coverage of European football on a Sunday night is brilliant. They have James Richardson alongside journos like Rafa Honigstein, Julien Laurens, Andy Brassel etc. I hoped for years that studios would start giving journos with encyclopedic knowledge the nod ahead of Ian Wright/Robbie Savage etc who are as articulate as potatoes and know very little outside of their own environment.

And top top it off BT have the best Serie A analyst around in fellow Romanista James "conditioned to perfection" Horncastle. I remember when this guy was writing the odd opinion article on Football-Italia and now he is pretty big time with BT Sport weekly appearances, FourFourTwo, The Guardian, ESPN etc. Can recall when he first started appearing of the Guardian podcast Football Weekly and their lead Serie A columnist at the time, Paolo Bandini, seemed like a casual follower of Serie A compared to Horncastle.

Salmeen10 · Sep 17, 2015

Alessandro @Florenzi arriving for training this morning... pic.twitter.com/2w6P5LrZnJ
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) September 17, 2015

DCUroma · Sep 17, 2015

I like their GIF game lately

GamE_Ove12 · Sep 17, 2015

Salmeen10 said: ↑

Alessandro @Florenzi arriving for training this morning... pic.twitter.com/2w6P5LrZnJ
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) September 17, 2015

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The Roma English twitter account has been on a roll recently great job!

GamE_Ove12 · Sep 17, 2015

644382991700000768 is not a valid tweet id

Pudže · Sep 17, 2015

Pretty interesting analysis of the match comparing Dzeko to Suarez:

http://gazzettaworld.gazzetta.it/news/champions-league/dzeko-key-stifling-barcelona/?utm_content=buffer3d89d said:

Hard-working Dzeko key in stifling Barcelona

Though the Blaugrana dominated in most key stats, it was Roma’s new striker who played a key role in securing an important result for the Italian side. Analysis by Andrea Schianchi of La Gazzetta dello Sport
by Adriano Boin, @adriboin 17/09/2015, 09:51 0 commenti

Look no further than a comparison between Roma and Barcelona’s central strikers to see why Wednesday’s Champions League match ended 1-1.

Though the Blaugrana’s Luis Suarez got his name on the scoresheet, it was the Giallorossi’s leading man who had the greater impact on the final result.

With Rudi Garcia’s side pinned back for nearly the entire match, the Bosnian brought much needed industry and resolve to what was a mature Lupi performance.

For starters, the Bosnian touched the ball on 44 occasions, compared to only 30 touches by the Uruguayan striker.

While numbers alone don’t tell the whole story, they speak volumes here, as Dzeko often found himself playing on his own for long stretches as the Giallorossi stuck to a rigid 4-3-3 formation.

In fact, it would be more appropriate to call it a 4-5-1, as it became apparent minutes into the match that Iago Falque and Mohamed Salah would not be making too many ventures forward.

It’s difficult to fault Rudi Garcia with that approach, as his defence and midfield needed to remain as compact as possible in order to stifle the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Neymar.

Despite losing the possession battle by a staggering number, as Barcelona ended the match with 74.7 percent of the ball, the decision to leave the initiative to the away side, while still limiting their attempts on goal, is a sign of the Lupi’s maturity.

Rather than face the Blaugrana head-on, the French coach focused his tactics around what his squad can do, and that included building a wall that the Spanish giants struggled to break down.

It would be ok to even go so far as to call the Giallorossi’s tactics catenaccio, but given the talent of Barcelona, it’s hard to find fault in sitting back, protecting your backline and battling with nerve and resolve.

Those are the qualities that typified Dzeko’s performance, as the Bosnian fought hard despite often finding as much as 30 metres between himself and a Roma teammate, along with failing to complete half of his 34 passes.

With great humility, the striker dropped deep as often as possible in order to provide the Lupi midfield with an outlet whenever the home side did manage to win the ball back, and thereby alleviating the pressure on a overworked backline.

Known more for his penalty area presence, the striker covered a distance of 9.5 km, while still managing to create two chances despite the added defensive workload.

On the other side, Suarez had nowhere near the same impact despite the Blaugrana’s monopoly of the ball.

The Uruguayan’s lack of involvement can be seen in the 14 passes he attempted, three of which were not completed, to go along with 11 lost balls and five failed dribbling attempts.

Credit must be given to his predatory instincts on his first half strike, but it is Dzeko’s sacrificial spirit that left more of a mark on the match and the final result.

While there is still much to work on for Garcia and his side, the fact that a repeat of last season’s 7-1 drubbing at the hands of Bayern Munich did not play out once again is proof that this year’s Giallorossi side are already a much different entity.
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Gianluca511 · Sep 17, 2015

Flo's gol was number 1 on SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays today.

ASRomaUSA · Sep 17, 2015

soccerr9 said: ↑

From a Juventino, I just wanted to say thank you to your club for making Serie A proud. The result, style of play, and atmosphere was a great advertisement for the league.

Now go on to beat Leverkusan for qualification! It will be a battle.
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ASRomaUSA · Sep 17, 2015

illusion said: ↑

Fuk you Nainggolan. This player should've got red card for his nasty challenge on Rafinha. Rafinha is out for the season and his career might be over!

This dirty guy should be banned from playing football for repeated reckless tackles.

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tomer48 · Sep 17, 2015

Vulpinous said: ↑

That is the biggest match Falque has ever played in. He will learn how to prepare and what is required. Just months ago he was a "provincial" player, so cut him some slack; he has been our best outlet on the left so far.
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I just think his more of a midfielder then a winger , i think we are wasting Iturbe on the bench.

GamE_Ove12 · Sep 17, 2015

tomer48 said: ↑

I just think his more of a midfielder then a winger , i think we are wasting Iturbe on the bench.
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Iturbe should spend this entire year as impact sub (unless we are hit with injuries). He is so much better coming off the bench with no pressure running at tired defences and when the game dynamic is already clear to him. He is slowly building his confidence back and gaining experience. So far 4 late subs and he looked great in all of them.

calabrese8 · Sep 17, 2015

illusion said: ↑

Fuk you Nainggolan. This player should've got red card for his nasty challenge on Rafinha. Rafinha is out for the season and his career might be over!

This dirty guy should be banned from playing football for repeated reckless tackles.

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Barca should be banned for doping their players as well as all the transfer rules that they continually break.

Totti=GOAT · Sep 17, 2015

Salmeen10 said: ↑

Alessandro @Florenzi arriving for training this morning... pic.twitter.com/2w6P5LrZnJ
— AS Roma English (@ASRomaEN) September 17, 2015

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Goduerza · Sep 17, 2015

Brilliant!

ASRomaUSA · Sep 17, 2015

I think Garcia's tactical decision making deserves some credit. Barca had >60% possession while we played with a defensive midfield and didn't try to attack the way we did in Monaco di Bavaria a year ago. Bravo to Rudi and a special mention to Manolas ....the greek has not gotten enough keystrokes in my opinion.

Rosay · Sep 17, 2015

Pudže said: ↑

Pretty interesting analysis of the match comparing Dzeko to Suarez:
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Totally agree with the Dzeko bit. He's faster than I realized. Had an immense game and without him Roma would have suffered. Woulda loved to see Totti come on tho

Michael Berk · Sep 17, 2015

Is there anything not to like about this guy?

After the Suarez goal Messi didn't celebrate, he went to go check on Digne, who he had tackled right before the goal. http://t.co/ircbcW3sLc
— CalcioASRoma (@CalcioASRoma) September 17, 2015

ASRomaUSA · Sep 17, 2015

Michael Berk said: ↑

Is there anything not to like about this guy?

After the Suarez goal Messi didn't celebrate, he went to go check on Digne, who he had tackled right before the goal. http://t.co/ircbcW3sLc
— CalcioASRoma (@CalcioASRoma) September 17, 2015

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Class, and a nice nutmeg too!

https://vine.co/v/eU6X2uPwFXg

iGiallorossi · Sep 17, 2015

It would've been classier to tell the referee he had fouled him stopping him from being able to put pressure on Rakitic.

Salmeen10 · Sep 17, 2015

iGiallorossi · Sep 17, 2015

Big Tom · Sep 17, 2015

iGiallorossi said: ↑

It would've been classier to tell the referee he had fouled him stopping him from being able to put pressure on Rakitic.
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Tbf Digne shouldn't have fell to the ground so easily.