Manchester United will be hosting AS Roma on Tuesday (European time) in their Champions League group stage match. This is the rematch of last season’s quarter final of the same competition. To be specific, this match is the rematch of the second leg of that quarter final in which AS Roma were trounced a whopping 7-1 and effectively knocked them out of the competition despite defeating Manchester United in the first leg which was played in Rome.
If all of you are thinking that I am posting this entry to express my support for Manchester United, like the majority would do, you are dead wrong here. I am not a football fan mercenary who is hopping from one team or another. I reckon there are way too many football fan mercenaries in this world. One great example is when Jose Mourinho left Chelsea and when Juventus were stripped of their two league titles and demoted to Serie B. Many of the fans of those two clubs left the club and decided to support other teams. Back to the main point, I am supporting and will still be supporting Roma no matter what.
In my opinion, there’s a chance Roma could stage a revenge against Manchester United at Old Trafford and brining back all 3 points to Rome. This is so despite the recent departures of some stars like Cristian Chivu and more recently, due to the fact that Roma were just thrashed 4-1 by the incumbent champions of Serie A, Inter Milan.
Many people would dismiss Roma’s chance to even get a point from this match based on tha latter fact alone. However, as a football analyst, we have to read scorelines between the lines. Which means, the 4-1 scoreline is actually does not reflect anything much. Think about this, it was a build up to the Manchester United match and Roma must choose to prioritize between these matches. Roma rightfully chose to sacrifice the Serie A clash with Inter as the Champions League clash is more crucial and this is compounded with the revenge effect. Also, focusing on Serie A would be pointless as Inter is predicted to run Serie A ragged and dominate again. In short, Serie A has been decided right from the start of the new season.
I am hoping that Roma could give Manchester United a run of their money and get all 3 points. I also hope to see Francesco Totti lifting the much coveted UEFA Champions League trophy in Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow in May 2008!
1 comment:
That was an optimistic post, albeit looking back at the yesterday's match result.
I suppose it would'nt hurt to place your last buck on Roma winning at Old Trafford 3-0 to bring back hopes of Totti lifting the cup.
C'est la vie..
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