The King of Rome

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15/02/2021

Yet another fabulous victory for Roma who have now snatched up 5 league wins in a row as Firmino put in one of his best performances of the season and Iturbe and Kenedy both managed to score a goal each to give Roma a 2-0 win over AC Milan. The title contenders are on an absolutely incredible run that seems like it will never actually end and this leaves Roma on 66 points after 24 games, with a game in hand over Inter who are currently second. To everyone's surprise, the league's best defence (with only 14 goals conceded at the time) conceded twice to now take their defensive record to 16 goals conceded in 24 games, just 3 goals better than Roma who are top of the league.

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Another great performance from the boys and the table kind of goes to show how well we've been doing this season. Atalanta have been performing very well to be honest and I've been surprised with Juventus only being in 4th place but I won't complain. The bigger teams who are down the table the better. Nevertheless, a very important victory that puts us even closer to the title and closer to an unbeaten season!
 
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19/02/2021
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Roma ease past Braga in second leg and go through to next round
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Roma only had to not lose by 4 goals or more at home in order to go through and despite going a goal down after just 8 minutes, they did just that by grabbing a 2-1 victory (6-1 on aggregate). Iturbe scored the goal in the 70th minute to gift the victory to the hosts as El Shaarawy had equalised just about 11 minutes after Braga's opener. Firmino got his second man of the match in a row as he put in yet another fabulous performance which sees Roma now go through to the Second Knockout round where they will face Hertha Berlin, who finished 8th in the Bundesliga last season. Roma's away game against Hertha will of course see them play at the Olympiastadion where they won the Champions League last season against Napoli which will be a very emotional game for Roma players to come back in the stadium and play there.

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Nice result I mean, there's not much to say about other than we played pretty well and our passing was on point, probably the best since the start of the season; all we had to do was just play our game and move the ball around and even if the scoreline from the 8th minute stayed like that, we would've gone through. I'm happy the players didn't give up though and still tried their best to get the result we got in the end but overall it's just not really an unexpected win. The games against Hertha Berlin in the next round will definitely be tough especially at the Olympiastadion given our history with the stadium so I'm really excited about that but we have some leagues games before that, so we just can't afford to lose our focus and think so far ahead already because the league is probably the most important at this stage of the season even if we're miles ahead at the top of the table.


To be continued...
 
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22/02/2021
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Cagliari shock Roma as 53-match unbeaten run comes to an end

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Cagliari shocked Italian pundits as they grabbed a 3-1 win at home against Roma who were 53 matches unbeaten. The hosts were 1-0 up at the half but scored twice in 3 minutes after the start of the second half and played with a man advantage for the last 10 minutes of the game as Elvis Manu produced an impressive display. This is Roma's first league loss since October 2019 when they lost 1-0 against Palermo and even though it is a negative result for them as their unbeaten streak now suddenly ends but the fans will be happy about the fact that their team have been dominating the league all season already and one loss should not have any impact on the league's outcome.

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One word: horrible. That's the only way I can describe this performance and that's honestly all I have to say about. I feel so embarrassed, so ridiculed. Just awful.
 
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25/02/2021
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Genoa score late to earn draw
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After Roma lost their first league game of the season in the last matchday, they today could only manage a draw against a hard-working Genoa side who managed to grab 2 goals in the last 13 minutes of the game to earn a point. El Shaarawy and Kenedy, both the club's top goalscorers and part of the Serie A top goal scorers, proved their amazing ability in front of goal by scoring a goal each but it wasn't enough as Roma's defence crumbled and conceded twice late on.

Very disappointing considering we were two goals up in the 65th minute and I'll need to have a talk with the defence before the next game to make sure we don't just do the same thing that we did today.Hopefully we'll end this winless run because it's been two games now, twice in the league, and that's not title-winning form at all.

 
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28/02/2021
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Boring draw between Roma and Fiorentina
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That's now 3 games in a row without a win for Roma as the Serie A leaders had a goal disallowed which ended up costing them 2 points. Iturbe was the man to watch during the game as he made Fiorentina's job to earn a draw even harder than it already was however I Giallorossi just couldn't find a deadlock and draw for the second time in a row after their most recent game against Genoa. There's clearly something that's gone wrong in the Roma dressing rooms for players to just stop performing suddenly but no information on that so far.

Disappointing yet again from this team, I don't know what's going on. The players just seem completely out of it and don't want to play well, it's frustrating at this stage of the season. I really just don't understand. Next game is our first leg of our Second Knockout round against Hertha Berlin so I just hope that we get fired up before that.
 
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05/03/2021
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Draw leaves Roma in uncomfortable position after first leg
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It's now 4 games without a win in all competitions for Roma as they failed to win against Hertha at home to try and get a comfortable lead ahead of the second leg in the German capital. Nainggolan's red card was probably the turning point of the game as Roma dominated but the Belgian got sent off with over half an hour to go which completely changed the game and allowed Hertha to somewhat control the game until the end. The German side will definitely be happy with a draw whilst Roma will have a lot of pressure at the Olympiastadion to try and go through to the quarter-final of the Europa League.

What is going on with this team?!? What are they doing I don't understand they're not scoring anymore they're getting sent off for no reason, they're just not doing anything correctly! I haven't spoken to them about it so far I just asked our club captain Radja to check up on them but he keeps telling me that everything's fine! I can see it in their eyes at the end of the last 4 games that they're disappointed and sad about something, I just don't know what and it's really impacting our performances and I just really can't have that! This is just ridiculous I really don't get it.
 
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08/03/2021
It's now 5 GAMES without a win for Roma as fans are starting to get worried about their players' ability to deal with the pressure of being in 3 competitions still, all at late stages and with a potential to win them. Roma were 1-0 down after 20 minutes as they conceded the first goal like many times in the past few games but managed to come back through El Shaarawy who scored his 22nd goal of the season and nothing really happened after that as it was a very quiet game. Roma still have a game in hand over their title rivals Inter and Napoli and are currently top with 69 points, 11 points clear of second place.

It's just getting stupid now! What happened to the Roma side that has been playing for the past 3 years and just winning everything? It's like we're back to square one with Spalletti now! I'm just really confused about this whole thing I don't understand what's going wrong I don't know if it's because people know how to counter our strategy now or if something happened to the players as a whole or what but this isn't good at all. If we keep playing like that, we could potentially lose out in the title race and finish 2nd! Even worse, maybe 3rd!! We need to turn this around as soon as possible because I just don't understand what's going on right now.

 
Change of tactics maybe could spurt them into new streak?
 
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09/03/2021
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Reports have come out today linking Francesco Totti with the Manchester City managerial job, now vacant after Jürgen Klopp was sacked about 2 days ago. The Roma manager has been doing some incredible things with his boyhood club since he joined back in May 2018 and clearly the Manchester City chairman has been impressed by the Italian legend's record and apparently has made him his priority. According to those reports, Al Mubarak could look into convincing Totti to accept to sign a contract at the end of the season and let him finish the season at Roma and say his goodbyes before flying to England in May or June of this year.
This comes in at a very precarious time for Roma as they look to secure the Serie A title and are still competing for the Europa League and the TIM Cup but also provides a possible explanation for Roma's bad performances as of late. Indeed, I Giallorossi haven't won a single time in their past 5 games, losing once and drawing 4 times, and have not been convincing at all and could risk letting Inter and Napoli come back very close to them ahead of the closing fixtures of the Serie A season.

So this is why the players have been all worried and sad?! What kind of rumours are those! I never even got a phone call from the Manchester City chairman. Besides, I love it here so why would I want to move? That was my initial reaction. Then, thinking about it, I just told myself that after all I stayed with this club for around 26 years now, what's wrong with experiencing a bit and moving to another country to manage there? It would be a huge move obviously but I've been thinking about it and now it just feels like it could be a possibility. I'm definitely not telling the players that yet though, I wouldn't want to demotivate them for the last few games of the season. This is something I need to reflect on a lot but as of now I haven't been contacted by anyone and I'm staying here next season for sure. I love the Olimpico, I love the fans and I love everything about Italy and Rome; something really bad would have to happen to make me change my mind about that and want to leave. I don't know what to think right now, I just need to clear my head before our next game or else I'm worried I'll make it obvious to the players that those rumours really did impact me.
 
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12/03/2021
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Roma qualify for next round after thrilling game
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This was Roma's first game since rumours of Totti leaving the club for Manchester City at the end of the season had come out and the players did exceptionally well to turn around a bad first leg at home to go on and win the tie. Coincidently, the draw for the quarter-finals happened right after and Roma got... Manchester City.

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This will definitely be a very interesting and entertaining tie as the first leg will be played at the Etihad Stadium on the 15th of April, giving Totti a chance to see his potential next home for the first time since playing there in the Champions League with Roma in 2015. The Italian legend is yet to comment on the rumours linking him away from "his" club as you could call it now that he's been here for 26 years, but it shouldn't be long before he decides to shut down those rumours and reassure the fans worried about their legend leaving the club.

Great result, great way to shut up all the pundits who thought we would go out this round following those rumours. I'm still unsure about it and I talked about it with my wife for a while once they came out and she had no problem with moving to England, even with all those talks about Di Maria being so unhappy when he lived there and how he got robbed and stuff like that. I was a bit surprised to be honest, especially considering when I went to manage Milan she decided to stay in Rome so I'm happy that she's moved on from that now but I'm really just questioning whether or not I should be even considering moving away from here. Manchester City is a big club, a growing club, with a lot of money but I just feel like I'd be betraying Roma if I moved there. I did manage Inter though which kind of supports my argument of "it's not like I'm moving to a rival club" but still. I'm thinking about this whole situation, my life here, the players and everything and I'll see how the rest of the season goes. Still nothing from Manchester City though so I'm a bit confused by all those rumours.
 
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15/03/2021
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Roma finally get back to winning ways
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Totti's Roma continued on from their 4-3 win against Hertha in the Europa League as El Shaarawy gifted them 3 points against Bologna for the first time in 5 league games, giving Roma fans even more hope that their team will secure the title at the end of the season. Only downside of the game for I Giallorossi will be Nainggolan's sending off, not that it should surprise anyone though as the Belgian seems to get sent off quite a lot. As club captain, it's of course a bit worrying and definitely something that Totti will want to get his hands on before it starts becoming a bigger issue. El Shaarawy scored his 24th goal of the season to stay the club top goalscorer this season, making it his 35th league goal in 66 games since joining Roma back in January 2019. Sitting on 72 points with a game in hand and just 8 games left in the season, it definitely seems like AS Roma will come away with yet another Serie A title, their third in a row, and attempt to go on and beat Juventus' latest record of 6 league titles in a row.

Great victory! It might not be by the biggest margin, but considering everything that's been going on we did very well. I really love Stephan, when I signed him I told him: "you're going to do a great job here and you'll really love it. I know you did when you were on loan in 2015/2016 and this won't be any different so I really wish you all the best at this amazing club and I know one day you'll be club captain" and he's really standing by me on that! Once Radja leaves the club or retires, he'll definitely be the man to take the armband I think given the time he's spent at the club and how important he's been as a leader and a goal scorer. We're on track for the title which is good and I'm hoping that things continue to go this way until the end of the season to come away with as many titles as possible!
 
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18/03/2021
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Draw promises exciting second leg between Roma and AC Milan

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The game summary really says it all about how the game went with the only highlight being Manquillo's yellow card in the 47th minute. This gives the chance for a much, much more exciting second leg of this semi-final as Juventus won the first leg of the other semi-final and we should see an exciting game between Roma and Milan at the Olimpico but a very boring game, probably the most boring of the season.

Going to the San Siro is never easy and we saw that today. Milan were incredible defensively and we just really couldn't break them down. In the end, a 0-0 draw is a pretty good result for us and an even one which gives the chance for any teams to go through but we'll have the home advantage as well as the scoreline advantage which is great. The international break is now starting and I'll be travelling with the national team to Cyprus for our first FIFA World Cup qualifier to hopefully grab a win but then we'll be back in the Serie A again where we'll need to keep playing well to secure the title soon.
 
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20/03/2021


As I was taking my seat in the stands to watch El Clasicò in Madrid, everyone was looking at me wondering what I was doing so I just waved at a couple of fans who recognised me but it's not secret that my two favourite teams are Roma and Real Madrid and that I've always said one of my biggest regrets as a player was to have not played here at the Bernabeù. A couple of minutes after sitting and waiting for the game to start, my phone rang. It was a number starting with +44, from England. Who could it be?

Me: "Francesco Totti here, who is this?"

Caller: "Good evening Francesco, it's the Manchester City chairman, Sheikh Mansour. Is now a good time to talk?"

Me: "Yes I suppose, I'm currently in Madrid to watch El Clasicò but the game shouldn't start for another 10-15 minutes. I'm guessing you're calling because all those rumours are true?"

Sheikh Mansour: "Exactly. It's no secret to anyone that you've been doing a very good job as a manager at both Inter and Roma and your reputation in the beautiful game speaks for itself. We at Manchester City are looking at potential candidates to take over here at the Etihad and we'd love to have you come to the club as you are our first choice. Now, we understand that you love Roma and have always been there apart from your short time in Milan but this would be an incredible opportunity for you to manage somewhere else, get some foreign experience and win even more trophies. What do you say?"

Me: "I'm flattered, definitely, but I just; I need to think about this very deeply because it's not easy to just leave a city you've lived in for over half of your life you know? Manchester City is definitely a big club but what I'm building here and what I've already managed to build makes me wonder if I should really leave all that behind to join a club I don't know much about in a country that I'm not even sure I'll enjoy living in you know?"

Sheikh Mansour: "We definitely understand and the board and I would allow you to take until the end of the season to think about our offer but just know that you are our top priority and we will keep trying until it's impossible for you to say no to us. We really love the work you've done so far and feel like you would be a perfect fit at this club. Take your time, enjoy the game tonight and get back to us whenever you want. We'll make sure to contact you again one way or another at the end of the season so you can let us know your decision."

Me: "That sounds fair enough but just know that you should still look for someone else for now because I've worked very hard as a manager to be the head coach at Roma and now that I am, I'm not sure I'm ready to give that up just yet. Thank you for your call but as of right now, my answer is no."

Sheikh Mansour: "Well, we haven't offered you anything just yet so there's nothing to say no to. We totally understand where you stand right now and hope to speak to you soon about this whole situation. Thanks for your time, we really appreciate it and hope for a positive response from you whenever we speak again."

Me: "Alright then, thank you too, have a good evening. Goodbye!"

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Well, he sure is not much of a negotiator. He's clearly so used to getting everything he wants that he just can't take no for an answer! I know they'll keep pressing for me and try to convince me to join them but thinking about it right now, I just feel so much guilt even imagining myself somewhere else. I don't know if I should give it another season or until the end of this current one or in 10 years but I just really feel like right now is not my time to leave Roma possibly forever. I want to manage here a long time and I feel like it's not been that long yet. We've won one Champions League but this club deserves more! This season has been a bit of a disappointment outside of the Serie A and I just want us to win everything one season, just absolutely everything. Then and only then will I feel like it's right for me to leave. They said they'd call me again at the end of the season so provided I don't change my mind, I'll be here next season, the fans can be sure of it. I know for a fact that this phone call will be everywhere in the papers and talked about around Europe but as long as the players know and the Roma board knows that I'm not leaving, then I'm good. The answer right now is no and will hopefully stay no at the end of the season.

 
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04/04/2021
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Uneventful draw between Sassuolo and Roma

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It ends all square at the Mapei Stadium as Sassuolo and Roma cancel each other out in a very close match. There were not many opportunities and the scoreline obviously suggests that as the home side looked a bit better on the ball throughout the game, getting a couple more shots on goal but never actually scoring any. It will be a game to remember though for Leonardo Berardi who got his first ever man of the match award for a very solid defensive performance as the 17-year old (from the Roma youth academy) now has a transfer value of about 10 million euros and has played a total of 28 games this season in all competitions with 19 of those coming in the Serie A.

So it's been about 2 weeks since Sheikh Mansour's phone call when I was in Madrid and let's just say it did perturb me a little bit since. During the international break the players kept asking me if I was okay and if everything was going well in the family and all of that which means I clearly made it obvious, something I don't want to be doing. Unfortunately, the players seemed to notice here too and we only managed a draw which is disappointing. We're still ina very strong position in the league and favourites to win but with a couple of other competitions still on the line too, we're definitely looking more stressed and I hope we turn that around soon. I tried to change up the formations we've been using since I joined and that didn't really work that well so far so I might just go back to our old system. As it's so often said, old is gold.

 
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07/04/2021
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Milan get narrow win to go through to final

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AC Milan performed very well at the Olimpico to grab a very narrow win which sees them go to their second TIM Cup final in a row as they lost last season to Sampdoria and missed out on their first trophy since 2011. Javier Pastore put in an amazing performance in the centre of midfield but it wasn't enough as Roma miss out yet again on the TIM Cup trophy since they last won it in the 2018/2019 season when they beat Juventus in the final. This was a very close game which saw Roma look the favourites but Luciano scored a nice goal in the 53rd minute against the run of play that obviously changed the outcome of the game and allowed Milan to just sit back and do their best to hold on to their win.

Just 3 days after a 0-0 draw against Sassuolo, let's just say this isn't easy to take. After all the stress I've been under, I guess it's a good thing that we have one less competition to deal with now but I wish we put in a better performance. Congratulations to them I mean, they defended very well and deserve their victory and their final but I just feel like we could have won too and I guess that's just football right there. Now we can focus on the Europa League and the league but I'm definitely putting more focus on the Europa League because the Serie A is pretty much over already I mean, I can't see the positions changing that much apart from 2nd and 3rd place or 4th place, basically any position under us.
 
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12/04/2021
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Easy victory for Roma as they stay on course for title
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After a disappointing exit in the TIM Cup, current Serie A champions Roma had to impress against Carpi to give their fans some hope ahead of their Manchester City game at the Etihad and I Giallorossi did just that. They absolutely destroyed Carpi and despite pushing until the 77th minute to score their first goal, they managed to score two more and grab a convincing 3-0 win that sees Firmino go up the goalscoring chart in the Serie A in the top 4 whilst Kenedy stays one of the top goalscorers as well and Pastore scored his first goal since December 2020 when he scored two goals against Egyptian side Zamalek in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Fantastic game, fantastic result. The players deserved a bit of fun after our disappointing game against Milan a couple of days ago so I told them to just go out there, enjoy themselves and score as many goals as they could and just take shots on goal. It might not have paid off at first but we did end up scoring 3 goals (from 28 shots, I know...) which is very pleasing and we're staying on course for the title. I'm trying to keep my mind focused on Roma and our games but Sheikh Mansour's voice just keeps popping in my head telling me he'll take me away from Roma one way or another; almost sounds like a kidnapping threat or something! Obviously, it's not that but I'm just really overthinking everything right now and I need to get myself together before we go to England to face Manchester City at their own stadium. He'll probably be there too and will want to talk to me but I'll do my best to avoid that.

 
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16/04/2021
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Impressive display sees Roma beat Man City

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Roma took all the chances they got at the Etihad Stadium as they scored 3 goals from their 8 shots and managed to grab a very impressive away win over Manchester City to get a huge step towards the Europa League semi-finals as the hosts managed to get a goal through Kevin De Bruyne in the 57th minute but they conceded straight after as El Shaarawy continued his amazing goalscoring form this season. Of course, this was a very interesting game not only because of the stature of the two teams facing each other but because of all the rumours linking Roma manager Totti with the Manchester City job as the managerial position at the club is still vacant and Sheikh Mansour personally flew from Abu Dhabi to watch the game and hope to talk to Totti about the job but according to reports, the two men didn't meet as Totti went straight back in the tunnel after the game and shaking Manchester City's caretaker manager's hand.

What a stressful day and game, jeez. Thank God it's over and we're on the flight back to Rome now. Just being in that stadium scared me, especially when I saw Sheikh Mansour's face in the VIP stands. I'm really happy about the win and really puts in an incredibly strong position ahead of the second leg but I won't take anything for granted. Kenedy, Stephan and Juan all did so well and I'm really happy with their goals and performance overall but I'm just really glad the game is over now, we can go back to the Serie A and play games feeling a bit more relaxed before they're the ones who come to our stadium and we hopefully go through.

 
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19/04/2021
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Roma get hard-fought victory over Sampdoria

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Very tight game between Sampdoria and Roma that saw I Giallorossi produce a very impressive and solid performance to win and get all 3 points, putting them even closer to the Serie A title. With their second leg of the Europa League quarter-final coming up very soon, they needed a good win to give themselves confidence and hope for the best when they face the English side at the Olimpico and they did just that by being very solid defensively AND offensively as Lazaar scored his first goal for the club since March 2021 whilst Iturbe scored yet another goal after his goal against Manchester City earlier this week. Roma are now on a 7-game unbeaten run and have been impressive away from home as of late, winning 3 from their last 5 games.

Very solid performance indeed! I needed to get my mind off the Manchester City game and the anxiety it caused me and thankfully this game did. It was a very stressful game too which helped me forget about my fears of Sheikh Mansour and just focus on this game. I feel kind of stupid as a 44-year old being so scared of a chairman but the way he talked to me that day on the phone, A MONTH AGO, was just very, awkward and scary. Scary in the sense that he was trying to be so convincing that I was scared I was actually going betray Roma and move to Manchester. Every win at this club gives me a better reason to stay because we're becoming a better club after every 3 points but Sheikh Mansour definitely made me doubt myself at first. With the second leg coming up soon, I doubt he'll come here for that game and hopefully we can approach it in a relaxed and focused way to go through to the next round.

 
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23/04/2021
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Manchester City get emphatic win at the Olimpico

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In an absolutely incredible turn of events, Manchester City have qualified for the Europa League semi-final! They were 3-1 down after a poor defeat against Roma at home and needed a miracle to go through and somehow got one, all thanks to Lukaku's brace and Bernard's amazing goal in extra-time. Lukaku could have even gotten a hat-trick in the game had he not missed a penalty in the 41st minute but the Sky Blues have done an absolutely incredible job to come back from a 3-1 home defeat and go through to the next round as their chairman came to watch the game like he did in the first leg. A brilliant performance from the English side who have done very well at the Olimpico, which turned into a bit of a fortress for AS Roma this season and it excites a lot of fans to come here as there are always amazing games, at least when AS Roma plays. Indeed, with Lazio now in Serie B, there's not much to cheer about for the other Roma team in Italy.

What the **** just happened!!! This was the WORST performance I have ever seen from this team in my entire life! I have been at this club for almost 30 years now and I've never seen such a horrible game! We were 3-1 up AWAY from home for God's sake!! I'm so embarrassed by this game and the fact that Mansour was there just makes it even worse. Now he's definitely got a reason to tell me "Uh your team isn't that good, ours is clearly better and you should join" but that's not me, I won't just give up like that. We went from being Champions League winners to being knocked out of the same competition and then of the competition under that and I won't accept that. I want to come back stronger next season in Europe and win it again because this is what this club is about; going against the stronger sides in the world and beating them and doing well and winning competitions ahead of them. At least now we can just focus on winning the Serie A which I think we'll be able to do before the end of the season anyway if we keep our form going but, very disappointing to exit that way. Hopefully the players will wake up for the Inter game soon.


 
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