Roma - Napoli

I've waited for Dave to post it for a few days but he must be busy .

This is going to be a tough match, our players on suspension return, so this is what I'd like to see fielded...

-------------------------------------Stekelenburg------------------------------------------
Rosi---------------------Heinze------------------------Juan--------------------------Taddei
DeRossi-----------------------------------Gago---------------------------------------Pjanic
-------------------Bojan---------------------------------------Lamela----------------------
------------------------------------------Totti---------------------------------------------

thought pjanic had suspension from last match?

You're correct schwarzgelb.

Pjanic is suspended for the Napoli match.

That said, we shouldn't lose too much with creativity with Totti in the starting XI.

What I'm concerned about in this match is wing play...Napoli are known for their wide play and our full-backs are going to have to be very disciplined against them.

Cavani also poses a serious threat to our CBs. He's a complete striker so he's going be very hard to contain and shut down.

On the flipside, we need to use this game as THE game to impose our game on them, make chances and take those chances. We'll have the sufficient firepower to do the business upfront, but Napoli are no slouches defensively with Cannavaro and Campagnaro leading that line in front of De Sanctis.

Historically, we have a good record at the San Paolo, but ever since they broke that hoodoo last year, this fixture is less of a sure thing.

Hopefully Osvaldo does not play

Gago wasn't called up, he picked up a knock last week in training. Pizarro is out as well. So two between Simplicio, Greco, Viviani and Perrotta will start in midfield, that is unless Perrotta is deployed again as a right back given that Rosi still isn't 100% fit. Lamela and Totti are very likely to start, possibly with Borriello.

to be honest I will be very disappointed if i don't see borrielo's starting today.

BANG!

Lamelaaaaaaaa < 33333333333333

I hate Osvlado.. I just do..

ffs osvaldo!

Pretty good half from us. We're still really shaky defensively, but Stek has been very solid. I liked what I saw from Rosi as well...Zuniga has given him a tough time of it, but he's gotten forward well.

Napoli are a relentless team though. If we don't score again, we'll drop points here. A 1-0 lead is just not enough. They are quite unfortunate not to be level or leading based on the sitters that Hamsik missed and Lavezzi hitting the post.

Like we didnt miss sitters

Stek is just a hero out there.

Its over. We have done it 3-1

Napoli 1 - 3 Roma FT

Great match, lots of chances for both teams..
Congrats Roma (Luis Enrique )

Bojan came off the bench & had a gd game.

Finally luck shows its face. I'm not sure it was the greatest effort of the season, but at least we got the job done...Stek had to make sure he was awake all game with double digit shots from Napoli...

You can really tell what a guy like Pjanic means to this team after this game. Napoli bossed the middle of pitch all night I thought...

Good to see Simplicio get a goal...Guy has done nothing but put in solid efforts when called upon. Rosi looked tired at the end...Then you see Maggio still having boatloads of pace well into 90 mins...Hopefully he can put a string of games together and get his wind back, much the same for Totti, although he had a good game imo.

Overall, I didn't think we had a shot in hell against napoli, but that's how close serie A is...One error by a goalkeeper, and a couple of missed markings and it costs you.

Though ultimately, I don't really care too much about the result....It's still a huge win for us and for LE especially. We played his brand of football and for once, we came out unscathed. We dominated them in their own half in the 2nd half and actually succeeding in cracking open that defense and creating chances. What's more is we actually took chances, though both Lamela's goal and Simplicio's goal were very fortunate, that cannot be overlooked.

Defensively, we continued to show improvement. We were always going to struggle against players like Hamsik and Lavezzi due to their pace, but the way Juan kept Cavani in his back pocket all night was fantastic. This was a vintage performance from him. A lot of credit must go to Stekelenburg though. The saves he made in the first half were fairly straight forward, but Napoli's finishing became better and better and Stek was there to rise to the occasion time after time. That's 6 mil well spent, boys.

i was watching at a juve bar today. i dont speak italian but it seemed like the majority of them were rooting for roma. good atmosphere regardless. first time i ever watched a football match at a sports bar

we were lucky to win today

napoli had two harshly disallowed goals, an own goal, a deflected goal, and hamsik missed a siter. they were very unlucky to lose. but regardless, i'll take it. there were still a lot of positives to take from this game and it's good to see totti back in the team. his passing and touch was amazing. i'm also very proud to have simplicio in our team, but it's unfortunate he never gets to play. (who wants to bet simplicio won't be starting on wednesday ?). so we won 3-1 but i'm not going to linger too much on it. we were a bit lucky tbh. bologna next

It seems i missed a good game of football was traveling the whole day and forgot to record the game..

can i catch the highlights of the whole game?? if yes, link plz

Beating Napoli at the San Paolo is usually hard as hell. We haven't beaten them there since 2001.

I think both teams were a bit unlucky in front of goal

a 3-3 or 4-4 wouldve been a fair result

Brilliant match and an excellent result for Roma.

Osvaldo was poor though.

RealGunner wrote:Brilliant match and an excellent result for Roma.

Osvaldo was poor though.

at least he wasn't as poor as cavani . juan made him his puppy for the match

sukrut23 wrote:It seems i missed a good game of football was traveling the whole day and forgot to record the game..

can i catch the highlights of the whole game?? if yes, link plz

http://footyroom.com/napoli-1-3-as-roma-2011-12/

in italiano, with... some... music....

i could only watch the first half...gutted. wish i had seen the rest. hamsik's miss was gold though

Great result indeed. I wasn't able to catch the game because I was at work all day, but I saw the extended highlights, I'll watch it tomorrow in full. A match that could've easily ended either way from what I saw, with Hamsik missing a sitter in the first half. Lavezzi and Lamela both hit the post as well. Glad to see the latter have a good game, he needed it to keep his morale high. Also good to see the usual Totti and De Rossi acclaimed after the match and Juan who had a good game from what I've read.

This was that type of result I was talking about one or two weeks ago. We needed that really convincing match and result which would give us that boost. This win, coupled with the good performance against Juve last week, could prove to be our turning point this season. We need to keep on improving, of course, but I think we're onto something now. We've hit a sort of balance between the italian mentality and Enrique's spanish style football. Our play is becoming quicker, while we're not afraid to go for those immediate vertical movements. With more time, we'll get a better idea of what this team could achieve.