Sitting in fifth place with 52 points heading into the Derby della Capitale, Daniele De Rossi’s I Giallorossi invited Lazio to the Stadio Olimpico looking forward to keeping their charge for the top four going.
Igor Tudor’s men, on the other, hand coming from a win in the league and a loss in the Coppa Italia respectively to Juventus had themselves gassed up to take up the bragging rights of who really “owns Rome”.
The first half of this highly contested encounter saw both Roma and Lazio get chances in the opening ten minutes with Paredes and Immobile failing to find the back of the net. Spanish centre-back, Diego Llorente was left in shock after his shot was blocked by Alessandro Romagnoli and sent off-target.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Man-cini
Four minutes before the break, Gianluca Mancini rose highest to meet Paulo Dybala’s corner kick and netted what was Roma’s first goal in this fixture after more than two years. Their last goal in this fixture was scored by the Giallorossi’s skipper, Lorenzo Pellegrini in an emphatic three-nil win back in March, 2022.
AS Roma kept on creating more chances after the break and Stephan El Shaarawy missed out on an opportunity to double their lead after his strike hit the woodwork from a brilliant Romelu Lukaku pass.
When you go for the king, you best not miss.
Igor Tudor will be pretty disappointed with his attackers for not being clinical enough in the second half, summing up a total of six shots with only one out of those being on target. Proving their defensive resilience once again and fighting to keep back-to-back cleansheets, the Roma backline and midfield threw everything they had into the game making ten clearances and collecting a total of five yellow cards in the second half while at it.
De Rossi was the happiest man on earth at the final whistle after sealing a narrow victory which brought an end to Roma’s four-game winless run against the Biancazzurri. The win did not have an impact on Roma’s position on the log but it narrowed the gap between them and Bologna, who later on registered a barren draw against Frosinone, to three points.
AS Roma travel to Udine to take on Udinese in their next league fixture looking to register consecutive wins in this crucial stage of the Calcio. Before that, they will travel to Milan to face off with Stefano Pioli’s men in what promises to be a thrilling first leg fixture of the Europa League quarter final stage at the San Siro.
