A spectacular Roma strolls over Cagliari thanks to a still dominant Lorenzo Pellegrini.
The first news regarding Roma-Cagliari is that, less than 24 hours before the start of the Sanremo Festival, Mina makes his first appearance on the pitch for the Sardinians, accompanied on the bench by Ranieri and Gaetano but without Massimo and Rino. Easy ironies aside, the match at the Olimpico is actually a match of debuts: the Colombian central defender on one side and Angelino on the other, both starters after not even a straight week of work. The inclusion of the Spanish winger already marks a clear change in conditions for Roma, who finds himself able to also recover the left side of the pitch under construction, where he no longer has to rely on readjusted players and, usually, struggling to advance the ball in the right way. If Roma gains solutions in low construction, Ranieri decides to give Cagliari the reverse approach and start heavy with the Petagna-Lapadula pair of attackers, who already on paper appear to be two perfect players to put Roma’s central pair in difficulty and in particular Diego Llorentewho emerged well but with great difficulty from the duels with Simy in the match against Salernitana.
Probably Angelino’s first 20 minutes on the pitch must have appeared like a breath of fresh air for the entire Roman fans. At the first touch of the ball, the Spaniard makes a vertical pass on El Shaarawy which gives rise to Pellegrini’s 1-0 goal, thanks to the fouling, ironically, by Petagna and Lapadula. Cagliari, stunned by the goal, immediately tried to react but apart from some unrealistic support on the two center forwards, promptly covered by an excellent job by Gianluca Mancini. It doesn’t take long before Angelino’s left-footed shot launches a perfect diagonal pass for Cristante’s cut, who arrives in the area and comes close to making it 2-0. Paradoxically, however, the 2-0 is even better and comes from the performances of Dybala at the start of the action and Lukaku at the end, with Dybala himself finding himself putting his left foot into the goal. At the end of the half Lapadula upped the game a bit, first forcing a save from Rui Patricio and then taking a penalty which was later removed by VAR. At half-time, however, Roma went two up, with a fairly undisputed dominance and also with Lorenzo Pellegrini playing his third game in a row at a very high level.
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The second half, which could have become treacherous given Roma’s last two outings, actually almost immediately became a catwalk. After six minutes of the second half, a penalty that is impeccable under the rules but which seems illogical for common sense puts Dybala on the spot for the second goal of the evening and Roma’s third. From 3-0 the match simply becomes a walk in the park for Roma. Huijsen broke away brilliantly on the hour mark to score the fourth and the last half hour became an exhibition, in which they entered Zalewskiwho returned to play taller after two years of toiling on the wing and above all Tommaso Baldanzi. The game of the Italian-Pole, perhaps the player most criticized by Roma fans in the last year and a half, is perhaps the first that shows some signs, with some more courageous dribbling and the desire to produce plays. Baldanzi also seems to enter with this spirit, although more intimidated, as was to be expected on his debut.
Cagliari, no matter how hard they try to offer resistance, practically immediately have to deal with a disadvantage that seems like a condemnation for a team designed to be very careful and passive. In the end, the greatest former player of the day – who was also welcomed with banners and chants from across the stadium – had nothing left to do but try to stop the wind with his 3-5-2 without pressure and with his medium block carved into the rock. The intentions, it must be said, are the best: Paulo Azzi on the left he makes a good impression against Karsdorp e Yerry Mina, as far as possible, manages to sustain the duel with Lukaku well, so much so that the Colombian leaves the field with just 3 duels lost out of 10 despite the opponent and despite the heavy defeat. Cagliari’s great fortune, today, is that of having three teams behind them who seem to have fewer in the long run but what is certain is that Ranieri and his team will need something more than Lapadula and Petagna to clearly get out of the zone relegation.
For Roma, however, this is practically the perfect match, against an opponent who is unable to effectively resist the fast combinations of Pellegrini and Dybala and who, however much he may try to remain compact, is easily undermined by the movements without the ball of De Rossi’s players. “Movements without the ball” is perhaps the key concept of this match: after three years of stagnation, Roma are starting to find some fluidity in their players; the action with which Dybala finds the 2-0 is something that hasn’t been seen in Rome for years due to the speed with which the ball travels – almost always with two touches and almost always progressing the game – and for the way in which the players fill the spaces. De Rossi, already in Sunday’s press conference, had underlined how occupying space is something crucial for his game and these first matches, with continuous movements of all the players – including defenders, like Mancini on the action that leads to the penalty 3-0 – which move and open Cagliari’s lines. Individually, in addition to the aforementioned Angelino – who at the first corner kick taken, after just 20 minutes, was immediately applauded by the fans – and a Dybala who was no longer too mobile but still technically dominant, Roma played the symbolic match Lorenzo Pellegrini, who responded with a huge game and also a goal – third in three games – and an assist to the delirious accusations received during the week and the boos received in the last match at the Olimpico. An answer, that of the Roma captain, once again clear and arrived on the pitch rather than in the newspapers like those of his former coach.
2024-02-05 22:07:20
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