The Roma she doesn’t act stupid, she overcomes the obstacle with ease Sampdorialeaves the round of 16 Italian Cup and in February he will find the Milan to the quarterfinals, in a single match a San Siro. This was what was asked of the team and the reassuring victory arrived, with the result put in the safe in a few moments and the qualification already after 24 minutes. So in the end the rest of the race was a long workout, good for Ranieri to manage the playing time, find the center of some players, restore self-esteem to the authors of the goals (Dovbyk double in 19 minutes, Baldanzi scored for the third goal, Shomurodov for the final seal just entered) and finally enjoy one quiet evening despite a Sampdorian goal, on the hour mark, which it made Ranieri angry and denied to Ryan at the debut the satisfaction of the clean sheet.
The practice was already closed in the 45th minute with the 3-0 with which we went to half-time, but in reality the match lasted 9 minutes, the time for Dovbyk to score the first goal and then to pick up the ball and kick it away towards the corner, to release that bit of frustration that every center forward accumulates when he finds himself going through a more or less long period without scoring, and it happened to him for a month and a half: the he had done the last one at Verona on November 3. Magically, after another ten minutes scored anothersimply by being stopped in the right place. That’s how it goes with bomber jackets and Artem is definitely part of this category. In the second half he also had the opportunity to score the third, but he was hypnotized by it Vismara. Baldanzi and Shomurodov completed the evening’s scoreso Roma’s attackers began to raise their voices again, after a period in which the goals were mainly played by players from other departments. Roma’s task was undoubtedly facilitated by the suicidal tactical attitude of Sampdoria, initially lined up with a 433 from Simplethird coach of the season just like Ranieri. The Blucerchiati took to the pitch with two full-backs very close together Meulensteen (a midfielder loaned to the defence) e Vulikicthree cheerful midfielders (the promising Nigerian Akinsanmiroowned by Inter, the director Yepesand Ronaldo Vieira on the centre-left), plus the former Roma player Everything, Leonardi e Pedrola in attack. Ranieri instead went down with his usual 3421, with the happy intuition of Saele makers full-band exterior, with Angelino on the left, two central midfielders (Beautiful in the middle and I’m sorry in the centre-left) to represent the department in the absence of Mancini (disqualified) ed Hummels (still affected) e Literate initially deployed as a central third, in reality almost naturally inclined to push on the wing rather than work in defence, while Paredes e Pisilli they were the two mediators of struggle and government. And Roma in the first minutes was so overwhelming that after the third goal arrived in the 24th minute, Semplici asked his team to change their system, he lowered Borini to the wing to better contain Angeliño’s advances, consolidated Veroli on the left towards Saelemaekers, and keeping three central defenders to deal with at least equal numbers of the three Roma attackers, with Baldanzi e Zalewski to divide the spaces behind Dovbyk. Because in that first half hour there was no match at all, between generous spaces granted and good Roman plays. Already in the 4th minute, a header from Saelemaekers sent Baldanzi deep into the area one-on-one, the Tuscan freed himself on the right and tested Vismara gloves. At 9′ the lead, again with the Belgian protagonist on the right, good at earning space to cross long and low into the center of the area where Dovbyk arrived in just the right time to deflect with his left foot into the corner: therefore they serve him well Ukrainian scores, good to know. In the 14th minute, a disengagement error by Yepes, in a presumption of building from below too much imaginativefavored the incursion again by Saelemaekers who this time went on his own and kicked a right-footed shot just high over the crossbar. But the second goal came shortly after, in the 19th minute, on the same axis: Saelemaekers coming out deep into the flank looked again for the Ukrainian in the centre, Meulensteen anticipated him and tried to cushion the cross for the goalkeeper with his chest, but the the ball soared, hit the crossbar and returned to the field right on the head of Dovbyk who scored his brace with an empty net. There wasn’t even time to restart and in the 24th minute the third goal also arrived, with Paredes able to find Baldanzi between the opponents’ loose shirts and the young talent ready to slingshot into the empty spaces, until kicking hard and low into the corner to the right of Vismara. Third goal e Sampdoria stunned: Semplici thus called Borini back to him and asked him to make the sacrifice of dropping from fifth to defend at least with three: and the situation was rebalanced.
Partly due to the greater attention of the guests, partly due to the Giallorossi’s laziness, the match suddenly became boring, despite the willing disposition of the players. 56,858 fans present (at least these were the paying people, then maybe a few thousand didn’t show up anyway), including the colorful Blucerchiati ultras, happy to sing throughout the evening, regardless of the size of the result. In the 41st minute another blast from Dovbyk (on a pass from Paredes and a shot from Saelemaekers on the chest) was providentially deflected from the opposition of a Sampdorian defender: it probably would have been my third personal goal. Before the double whistle there was also a attempt by the guestswith a high left foot from Veroli. Ranieri had responded to Semplici’s tactical change by supporting his team’s already natural predisposition to slide to the right front with Celik: thus he made the transition of the formation to 4231 official, with Saelemaekers closer close to Baldanzi and Zalewski behind Dovbyk and Celik wide to play full-back (pushing). With two targeted changes, the Samp coach rearranged his team a little better by putting himself in a mirror image, with Borini and Akinsanmiro behind the immature Leonardi with four midfielders (including the two new players De Paoli and Ioannou on the flanks) and three defenders: the two left wingers, Veroli and Pedrola, came out. Roma began to practice a bit of academy and Samp, more comfortable in the new system, took courage, to the point of achieving at the end of the first hour of play the 3-1 goalcon Yepes, caught only in the area for a double missed closure by Paredes and Hermoso, on a quick transition on which the Giallorossi defense was found to be a little too cheerful. Ranieri then proceeded with the changes he had already thought of to give new vigor to his team: in Le Fée and Soulé for Pisilli (already booked, there was no point in risking anything) and Saelemaekers. And Semplici responded by inserting Benedetti in Vieira’s place. After less than a minute, with the first ball played, Soulé took a ball from his tile, moved it to the left and kicked hard, reaching the top corner to the right of a clearly beaten Vismara: what bad luck! A few seconds later Zalewski on the opposite side tried to emulate his teammate, kicking too high. And another minute after that Soulé he fed Dovbyk on the vertical and the Ukrainian found himself alone in front of Vismara, and from there he looked for the most banal solution, the strong left-footed shot towards the far post, sensed by the Sampdoria goalkeeper. Other changes defined the final structure of the team (with Pellegrini midfield from the 25th minute in place of Paredes and Dahl high on the left in place of Zalewski), and then it was Shomurodov’s turn, who entered the field with the blessing of Dybala: so when a minute after entering the Uzbek himself unstoppably deflected a great cross from Angeliño with his head, it was inevitable to go and celebrate the goal right in the arms of the Argentinian, amused by the success of the prophecy that he had evidently revealed to him . And during injury time Celik came close to scoring the fifth goal with his head again following a cross from the left-footed Spaniard: perhaps the Turk didn’t want to take away the spotlight from the attackers, great protagonists finally returned.
