With a Sunday lunchtime kick off between the two rivals Lazio and Roma it was set to be an absolute highlight game between the capital’s two giants on Stadio Olympico in Rome. There had been talks about the game for weeks and one of the most common topics where whether or not the Roma coach Luciano Spalletti would give the club icon Francesco Totti one last chance to play in a Rome derby.
The 38-year-old Totti started his career in Roma and made his first team debut already back in 1992 and has for the last 25 years become a big hero and icon at the club. With the league win in 2001 and the World Cup win in 2006 as the career highlights, Totti will be remembered as one of the greatest and most loyal players of his generation, having scored 250 league goals in total in over 600 matches for Roma. Despite rumours about clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United chasing Totti for years, he has always been faithful to his boyhood club.
But the Sunday derby didn’t turn out to be what Totti or Roma wished for going into the game. With Totti starting on the bench, he saw his Roma fall behind early in the game after that Lazio’s so talented winger Keita Baldé shot the ball between the legs of the Roma defender Emerson and into the net between their Polish goalkeeper Wojcieh Szczesny. However, at the end of the first half Kevin Strootman went down easily in the penalty and the referee blew his whistle and pointed towards the penalty spot. Daniele de Rossi made no mistakes and equalized the game to 1-1, which was going to be the half-time result.
After the break, Roma’s top scorer Edin Dzeko was really close to putting the home team in the lead but instead it was Lazio’s Dusan Basta who scored 1-2 in favour for Lazio in the 50th minute. Roma kept on chasing and finally brought on Totti in the 73rd minute but instead of becoming the hero in his last derby, he could only watch when Keita scored his second and Lazio’s third goal in the match after a fine assist by Senad Lulic.
The win means that Lazio still have a small chance of stealing the last place to next year’s Champions League from either Roma or Napoli, who won an important 1-0 win away to out of form Inter later on this Sunday. After a fine start as Inter manager, Stefano Piolo now looks to be under danger, losing his job this summer, especially with the new Chinese owners having the intention to make Inter an international super power again. Expect some big changes in both Inter and Milan this summer, with many players fighting for their futures at the two clubs as well. Follow the last couple of rounds of the Serie A and don’t forget to bet on all the exciting games here.
