Rome-Bodo, Zaniolo! Hat-trick and standing ovation: “The perfect evening”

If he could, perhaps, he would have imagined it just like that, his best night of the last two years. In 2020, in April, Nicolò Zaniolo was in lockdown like everyone else but he was even worse than everyone else, struggling with a crusader injury. In 2021 the world was trying to get up, with difficulty, and he did the same, since in the meantime the other one, as a crusader, had also broken. Today, April 14, 2022, in a very sweet Roman night, Nicolò Zaniolo really put everything behind him: he had already scored, in recent months, but he had never brought home the ball and, above all, he had never been so happy. like tonight.

Not even on the day of his debut at the Bernabeu, not even when he scored twice in the Champions League at Porto: there he had the label of predestined, now everything has changed. He fell, he got up, he fed his private life to the newspapers – and he regretted it – he became a father. But above all, he has grown up. Very few social networks, very few words, just a lot of work in the field. He suffered – like when he remained on the bench at the derby – he struggled to understand, to digest, but at the first opportunity he was ready. And he scored three goals (seven this season, he misses one to match his record) that sent Roma straight to the Conference League semifinals.

All happy

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First his mother spoke on Instagram: “Fly high, phenomenon of my heart”, then his sister: “You have silenced everyone as only you know how to do”, and then it was his turn. Felice, after having posed with the ball under the South curve, excited, as he hadn’t seen for a while: “We played the match that the coach was asking of us. Perfect in the offensive and defensive phase. We enjoy this victory and go to the semifinals. We don’t want to stop ”. Zaniolo, with honesty, does not deny that he would have liked to have played the derby and that some moments were not easy, but he looks ahead: “In good and bad times I have always thought about maintaining the right balance. This is a perfect night but I have to keep a balance. There are good and bad moments, the important thing is balance. I would have liked to have played in the derby, but I respect the manager’s choices, also because he was right as we won 3-0 “.

Thanks Rome

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When the Olimpico came out, everything stood up to clap his hands and for him it was really the best way to close the circle: “I want to thank the fans for being close to me. Especially in dark times. I love him”. And they want some from him, the boy who is the only one, with Haaland, born after 1999, to have scored at least two braces in the knockout phase of the European cups. Not only that: among the players who play in teams of the five major European championships, Zaniolo is the only one born after 1999 to have scored a hat-trick in Europe. All in front of Francesco Totti, the last Roma player to have scored a European hat-trick with Roma. Details, perhaps. Or maybe not. Certainly signs of a night to remember.

Dedications and the future

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Before leaving the Olimpico, Zaniolo dedicates the hat-trick to his family and glosses over the future: “I want to dedicate these three goals to my mom, my dad, my friends who are always next to me in the most difficult moments, it’s for them, for my sister, for grandmother and grandfather, for everyone. The future? I don’t know about the rest “.