Here’s Nathan coming in strong with a contender for pun of the year. Can he inspire Roma to a great start to the season?
Hello and welcome back to Rome for season 2 with Mr Roma himself Francesco Totti. Season 1 was a heartbreaker for Totti as he lost both the Coppa Italia Final and the World Cup Final. He has also requested to leave which isn’t a great start to the new season. No new signings as we made a lot in Season 1 and i want to see if they can gel in the first few games. So let’s get to it.
We kick off with a win in the Coppa Italia 2nd round. Totti and Mahlas trade goals and assists with each other. Gomez then scores a towering header from a corner. Bierhoff scores a penalty late on but we’ve already got the job done.
Cesar Gomez is on fire! Another 2 towering headers give us a 2-0 lead. Totti adds a very late penalty after Assennato get’s frustrated and wipes him out in the box.
We open our Euro 2000 Qualifying campaign with a good win against Yugoslavia. Kristic gives them an early lead but 2 goals in the last 5 minutes of the first half from Totti turn the game around. Inzaghi grabs a goal and then his replacement Vieri grabs a late 4th.
First big test of the season and we fail. Ok, so we get a point but it’s only thanks to Inter going down to 9 men. We batter them in the first half and Totti misses a penalty but Ronaldo only needs 1 goal to send Inter in 1-0 up. Mahlas finally gets one past Pagliuca, who was amazing, with 15 minutes remaining. Totti was terrible.
We enter the Cup Winners Cup 1st round with a bloody ridiculous game. We are 6-0 up at halftime, Totti with a 21 minute hattrick. We make changes at halftime and Besiktas get 3 goals back. Crazy game!
Goodness me we batter Fiorentina here! Mahlas is absolutely sensational, running rings around the defenders. Totti grabs a couple, one from the spot, and all of this is in the first half! The second half is a non event.
Poor game from us. We don’t even look like scoring or that we even want to. Montella scores in the first half and Zanini seals the win on the hour mark.
Another entertaining game with Besiktas. The 2nd team get the job done to see us through to round 2.
Not a great draw at home against newly promoted Verona. Siegl is a constant thorn and twice gives Verona the lead. Rutzittu gets the first one back before Mahlas completes the comeback in the second half.
A crushing win over Israel with Totti getting another hattrick. Bonny Ginzburg (great name!!) concedes 3 before deciding he’s had enough and gets sent off.
Really pleased to beat Empoli as they were a constant thorn in our side last season. Mahlas is in good form and bags another 2 goals to seal the 3 points.
It’s a clash of the Coppa Italia finalists from last season and i’m happy with a point. Vicenza are top of the league so this was always going to be tough but Cafu getting sent off after 20 minutes and giving away a penalty, which is converted, doesn’t help. We hang in though and in the 86th minute Mahlas’ blocked shot is rolled home by Rana.
We leave it late but eventually get the job done against FC Tirol. Totti gives us the lead but Tirol level and it stays that way until the 75th minute when 3 goals in 7 minutes put us in command of the tie going back to Rome.
A commanding 3-0 over Brescia here. Gautieri storms forward to hammer home the opener. Rana hits home a rebound to double our lead before halftime. A rare goal for Cherubini, who is deputising for Lee Hughes, caps off a solid performance.
That’s it for this update. Bit of a lengthy one but here is the current table.
Flying high in 2nd place which is a good place to be. Still to play Juve and AC Milan who are struggling early doors. Join me next time to see if we can continue our good start in the league, Seal progression in the Cup Winners Cup and try to find a way past Inter in the Coppa Italia. I will leave you with the main man himself so far this season.
