Torino-Roma 1-1: Lukaku escapes, Zapata catches him

They branded it, the two giants of Toro and Roma: Lukaku opened the ball in the second half, Zapata responded at the end of a never banal match with his first Granata goal. It was a hard-fought, competitively intense match, with several interesting ideas: Toro was better and overall more consistent in terms of play, seen this evening in its best version of the season. In the second half, Mourinho’s Roma improved a lot, after having conceded the pitch to the Granata in the first half. It’s a good point for both teams.

body to body

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Juric and Mourinho have known each other thoroughly and for many years. There was a time when the former studied the Special, then José began to take a curious interest in the philosophy of Croatian. When Toro-Roma begins, this knowledge emerges plastically: the Granata and the Giallorossi position themselves man against man across the pitch. Same module (3-4-2-1), same basic concepts, the interpretation varies. Because if Roma, in the first half, essentially revolved around the talent of Dybala with a counterattack on Lukaku (and to be honest, the two rarely engage), Juric’s team certainly has control of the pitch and tries to enter centrally with Zapata (thanks to the continuous stitching work of the Tameze-Ilic duo) and on the bands. Especially on the left, with Lazaro, the most interesting ideas arise. In the fifth, right from a cross from Lazaro, Zapata heads in the heart of the area calling Rui Patricio to make a save with a high difficulty coefficient. Four minutes later comes Dybala’s only flash in the first 45 minutes: with his left foot he invents a central through ball, not exploited by Lukaku: while running, his diagonal is imprecise. Radonjic polishes the shot a couple of times (19′ and at the end of the first half) but the aim isn’t there. At the half hour mark, a volley from Rodriguez hits the scoreboards. At halftime, the score doesn’t break the deadlock.

Cristante at the pole

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At the start of the second half (6′), the sparkling Seck launched by Zapata invents the very occasion: N’Dicka is drunk, and his diagonal caresses the post for a whisker. After ten minutes, Juric pulls out a dull Radonjic to throw Vlasic into the fray. Roma responds in the twelfth with Cristante’s post: Spinazzola crosses from the left, the ball bounces in the heart of the area where Cristante touches it just enough to deceive Milinkovic on the way out and ends up on the post.

here are the giants

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The Mourinho gang begins to rev up the engine. First, an amazing block from Rodriguez on Lukaku was needed to avoid the Giallorossi’s lead, but in the 24th minute Big-Rom won the duel with Buongiorno in the heart of the area and pierced Milinkovic. Juric draws heavily from the bench: Seck and Tameze out for Sanabria and Karamoh, bringing Vlasic to the midfield line. It’s the night of the giants: in the 40th minute the Giallorossi Lukaku responds, the granata Zapata responds. Ilic delivers a ball from the left from a free kick to the center of the area, where the Colombian arrives like a speeding train: it’s the one-to-one decision. Attacking final from Toro, who doesn’t find the knockout blow.