His Roma team had just squandered a two-goal lead at home to Inter but as he crossed the Stadio Olimpico pitch to greet the man who had led the visitors’ comeback, his lips formed into a grin. He does it to everyone, though. He’s a great champion, everyone thinks very highly of him, even if he makes all of us suffer.” The game had finished 2-2, Martínez’s second-half goals cancelling out a pair from Manu Koné.
Two points dropped for Gasperini’s Giallorossi, yet also one made in the standings and one to their rivals, to their fans, to themselves. After winning their opening four games, they had stood toe to toe with the champions and landed confident punches, even if they could not find a knockout blow. At the start of this second season under Gasperini, Roma look more than ever like a team in his image: taking the game to their opponents high up the pitch, engaging man-to-man and seeking opportunity from individual duels.
The risks were evident even in the moments leading up to Koné’s sixth-minute opener, with possession swapping rapidly and the Roma centre-back Leonardo Balerdi staying alert to intercept a through-ball from Yann Bisseck for Martínez. Roma’s rewards were reaped when Paulo Dybala’s cross was headed down by Nahuel Molina for Koné to sweep home. Koné is an unlikely scoring threat.
He has found the net twice in each of his two seasons at Roma but matched that by the 37th minute of this game, arriving at the edge of the six-yard box to convert again from another Dybala delivery, this time after a touch from Gianluca Mancini. The goal was initially disallowed before a VAR review confirmed neither player had been offside. Roma had been the better team but also ridden their luck.
Not long before Koné’s second, Martínez missed an open goal from point-blank range and Alessandro Bastoni hit the post from a narrow angle. These Inter warnings went unheeded. Less than a minute into the second half, Martínez released Marcus Thuram down the left and the Argentinian sprinted through the middle to receive the return, finishing brilliantly into the bottom corner in between three defenders.
If Roma are establishing their identity in year two under Gasperini, then perhaps the same is true for Inter under Cristian Chivu. They are, to belabour our previous boxing metaphor, Serie A’s Rocky Balboa, a team who can walk – sometimes quite naively – into a flurry of punches, weather all of them and swing back twice as hard. This was the fourth game in a row that Inter had fallen 2-0 behind and the third of those in which they avoided a defeat.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
