by Anton Johan
Just when it looked like
AS Roma was in with a real shot to win this year's
Serie A title over fierce rivals Internazionale, the team may have blown its chances after it suffered a 2-1 defeat on the weekend to Sampdoria, who are currently fourth in the Serie A standings.
When the big game got underway, there seemed to be an almost palpable confidence amongst Roma's players and fans alike that the match would be a walk over, which was cemented in the 15th minute when Roma's captain, Francesco Totti, opened the scoring to make it 1-0.
However, the goal seemed to tighten up Sampdoria's defenses and neither team made any headway during the remainder of the first half. The second half, however, is when things started to go badly wrong for Roma, as a driven Sampdoria started playing like a team possessed.
Particularly on fire was Sampdoria striker, Giampaolo Pazzini, who scored both of his team's goals against a struggling Roma, to the joy of the Sampdoria fans. He scored early on in the second half to make it 1-0 and again with barely five minutes before full time to make it 2-1.
It was a dazzling performance from Sampdoria, even though they are out of the running for the Serie A title. And because Roma underestimated the team from Genoa, it may well have scuppered its chances of catching Internazionale who with 73 points, are leading Roma by two.
Interestingly, the shock defeat was AS Roma's first since October last year, and was reflected in the unhappy face of the team's head coach, Claudio Ranieri. 'We are obviously disappointed because we played a beautiful first half, but didn't make the most of our chances,' he said.
'Perhaps we could have controlled the game better after the break,' continued Ranieri. 'But as I told my players, a draw or a defeat makes little difference. Our future is no longer in our hands and we must try to win our remaining games and hope Inter don't. But Inter are an armada.'
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