At the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, the 46th president of the United States paused to grab a selfie with the eighth King of Rome. Frank Underwood and Francesco Totti: two characters stripped of the jobs that defined them. Netflix are yet to confirm whether House of Cards will be renewed for a sixth season, but for Roma the show must go on, even with their greatest star now relegated to a supporting role.
The crowd sang Totti’s name before kick-off against Inter, louder than that of any player who would take to the pitch. It was a show of support for a man still struggling to adjust to life as a director. But it was also a not-so-thinly veiled jab at Luciano Spalletti, the manager who phased him out of the Roma team over the past two years, before leaving to take charge of the Nerazzurri.
Spalletti’s own name was jeered when the teams were introduced. He knew this was coming, even if it might seem unfair. Roma were fifth in Serie A when he returned to the club in January 2016, but picked up more points than any other club through the remainder of that campaign as they fought their way back up to third. One year later, they were second.
This despite Spalletti losing patience long before the end. After a 4-1 victory over Milan in May, he lamented that “If I could go back, I would never have come to manage Roma” – citing the endless obsession with Totti as his chief complaint. He jumped at the opportunity to join Inter this summer, even though it would mean foregoing European football.
It helped that his new employers had an ambitious project of their own. Inter had invested close to €160m on new signings in the preceding 12 months, and would follow that up with a further €70m this summer. The club’s Chinese owners had a clear goal of returning to the Champions League, and were willing to provide their manager with the resources he needed to get there.
Saturday’s visit to Roma would serve as an important early measure of progress. Inter had impressed in pre-season, beating the likes of Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Villarreal, and swept aside a disjointed Fiorentina in their season opener. But this was a challenge of a different order. They had not won away to the Giallorossi in Serie A since 2008.
Nor did they look likely to on this occasion. Although they started brightly, Inter were soon overrun in midfield. It was one thing to match the muscular intensity of Radja Nainggolan and Kevin Strootman, but another to equal their quality in possession. Roberto Gagliardini was harried into giving the ball away cheaply, and so was Milan Srkiniar further back.
Roma hit the woodwork for the first time in the 13th minute, Aleksandar Kolarov’s 25-yard volley coming back off the left-hand upright. No matter. Edin Dzeko put the hosts in front moments later, taming a Nainggolan chip on his chest and thumping the ball past Samir Handanovic. It was a timely reminder, from last season’s capocannoniere, of why Spalletti had no room for Totti in his starting XI by the end.
Nainggolan almost made it two before the break, striking the same post as Kolarov, and Roma continued to dominate afterwards. They should have had a penalty when Diego Perotti was brought down by Skriniar, but the referee, Massimiliano Irrati, was reportedly informed via his earpiece that this was an insufficiently clearcut decision to be reviewed using VAR.
From another attack, Perotti hit the crossbar. And then, out of nowhere, Inter equalised. Antonio Candreva cut inside from the right and slipped a cute pass through for Mauro Icardi, who swivelled and placed the ball into the near corner of the net. It was a poacher’s strike from the Argentinian: instinctive, economical and ruthless. He had missed a better chance in the first half, but more than made amends by adding a second to give Inter the lead.
This time the cross came from Ivan Perisic on the left, but Icardi followed the same pattern of touch, pivot and finish. Nainggolan had time to fire over at the other end before Matías Vecino made it 3-1 to the visitors. It was Perisic once again who supplied the ball, and this time only a simple near-post tap-in was required.
Roma were shell-shocked. Theirs has been a challenging summer, with Mohamed Salah and Antonio Rüdiger both departing and no big-name signings arriving to replace them thus far. And yet they had outplayed Inter comprehensively for most of this game. Eusebio Di Francesco, the manager, had got the better of Spalletti tactically at least until the latter shook things up by introducing João Mário in the second half.
It should have been enough to dampen talk of a club moving in the wrong direction. Instead, the final result will only reinforce the doubts. Beating Inter to the signing of Sampdoria forward Patrik Schick in the coming days might appease the club’s fans, but on this performance it would appear that Roma’s greater problems lie in defence.
For Spalletti, meanwhile, this can only have felt like vindication. He spoke in conciliatory tones afterwards, drawing a distinction between the “Roma fans” from whom he claimed to have received many friendly messages in the buildup to this match, and the “Totti-fans” who jeered him.
“Roma were definitely unlucky today,” he added. “In football luck happens, and we had it. But it goes the way of those who have the courage to try things and we always hammered away.”
It helps to have a player like Icardi leading the line, his confidence soaring after a call-up to represent Argentina in World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Venezuela. In this summer of wild spending, the €110m buy-out clause in the striker’s contract starts to look like a potential bargain. Happily for Inter, they included a sub-clause stating that this can only be triggered between the end of the season and mid-July.
Spalletti, then, can look ahead to this international break safe in the knowledge that his striker will not be stolen away before the transfer window snaps shut. The manager’s Inter tenure is off to a bright start, but he knows that he will have to build on these foundations for them to become more than just another house of cards.
Talking points
• Just call him Paulo Dy3ala. Or don’t, because, even though it looks natty in a headline, how would you actually pronounce that if you tried to read it out loud? Look, the point is that Paulo Dybala scored his first Serie A hat-trick as Juventus came from behind to beat Genoa. Unlike the last man to wear the No10 shirt for Juventus, he does not seem to have been weighed down by it in the slightest.
• For the second week running, Juventus had a penalty awarded against them after a VAR review. This time it was converted, giving Genoa a 2-0 lead, and had the match unfolded differently then perhaps we would have heard a lot more about this decision. Although the replay officials were correct to spot that Daniele Rugani had swiped the heel of Andrej Galabinov, they failed to note that the forward had only got to the ball from an offside position. Juventus would later win a penalty of their own thanks to VAR, but afterwards Gigi Buffon suggested that he wouldn’t have given either of them. “When the system is used parsimoniously and with moderation, it will be a great tool,” he reflected. “The risk is that you are going to lose the referee’s sense of perception … You could say that both of these penalties were right to be given, but only in laboratory football. In real football, they were not penalties.”
• For what it’s worth, there have been exactly the same number of penalties awarded in the first two rounds of games this season as there were over the corresponding period last year.
• Another game, and another goal for Milan’s 19-year-old striker Patrick Cutrone, though it was Suso who grabbed the winner as the Rossoneri edged past Cagliari. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend taking a moment to read Ed Aarons’s interview with Milan’s chief executive Marco Fassone – who spoke very frankly about the club’s ambitions and ownership structure – acknowledging, among other things that the club could be owned by Elliott Management by this time next year.
• Napoli came from a goal down to beat Atalanta 3-1, though this was a victory tinged with sadness. Pepe Reina was struggling to keep back the tears as he went to the fans at full-time, amid reports that he is set to join Paris Saint-Germain.
• The only other team left with a perfect record are Sampdoria, who won away to Fiorentina. It is a frustration for the club that Schick’s sale has dragged on this long. If he does indeed leave before the window snaps shut, they are unlikely to have enough time left to reinvest his transfer fee before January, but it was encouraging nevertheless to see Gianluca Caprari get off the mark following his move from Pescara.
• Spal recorded their first top-flight win since 1968 in dramatic circumstances, blowing a 2-0 lead only to then snatch a winner in the 93rd minute. It was Luca Rizzo who settled things with a fine strike, but let’s give a nod to Marco Borriello as well. Freshly signed from Cagliari, he opened the scoring for the promoted side, and has now scored for 12 different clubs in Serie A – matching a record set by Nicola Amoruso.
• Fair to say that Italy would love another one of these from Andrea Belotti against Spain on Saturday…
Results
Benevento 0-1 Bologna, Chievo 1-2 Lazio, Crotone 0-0 Verona, Fiorentina 1-2 Sampdoria, Genoa 2-4 Juventus, Milan 2-1 Cagliari, Napoli 3-1 Atalanta, Roma 1-3 Inter, Spal 3-2 Udinese, Torino 3-0 Sassuolo
