Davis Cup
Bruno Conti endured a frustrating home league debut in charge of Roma as his team were comfortably brushed aside by an impressive AC Milan on Sunday evening. To make matters worse, the Giallorossi also finished the game with nine players following the second-half sendings off of Christian Panucci and Francesco Totti. Hernan Crespo fired Milan ahead shortly after the hour-mark and Andrea Pirlo doubled the lead from the penalty spot soon after in an incident which also saw Panucci sent off for a deliberate handball. To add salt to Roma's wounds, they lost captain and talisman Totti to a red card in the final minutes for petulantly lashing out at a Milan defender. The victory allowed champions Milan to rejoin Juventus at the top of the standings, after the Bianconeri clinched a narrow victory over Reggina on Saturday. Conti, having taken over from Luigi Del Neri on Monday, faced a baptism of fire as his new team welcomed Scudetto contenders Milan to the Stadio Olimpico with the Rossoneri chasing their eighth succesive Serie A win.
Milan suffered a surprise 4-1 defeat to Udinese in midweek in the Coppa Italia but bounced back in style with a superb second-half performance. The first half was a closely-fought affair with Roma starting well but failing to capitalise on the couple of good chances they created. Roma went into the game inspired by their midweek qualification to the Coppa Italia semi-finals, a relief after last weekend's 3-0 debacle in Cagliari that brought to an end Del Neri's six-month spell at the Eternal City club.
The hosts should have taken the lead after 10 minutes when Antonio Cassano served an unmarked Vincenzo Montella inside the area but the striker, having cut back in on his left foot, failed to beat Dida with a poorly-struck effort. Contrary to press speculation, Cassano was included in the starting XI but Conti's decision was not welcomed by a sizeable contingent of the Giallorossi support who booed the announcement of his name prior to the game. Cassano has become unpopular on the Stadio Olimpico terraces because of reported friction between him and his team-mates and speculation linking him with a summer move to bitter enemies Juventus. Despite enjoying the better of the early play, Roma almost found themselves behind after 13 minutes though when young keeper Gianluca Curci was forced into a superb diving save to turn Kaka's flicked shot behind for a corner.
And Curci was called on again in the 27th minute to deny Jon Dahl Tomasson, whose poor control let him down just as he looked poised to break the deadlock. The game settled down into a midfield battle after that opportunity, and only Totti, with a long-range free-kick that was safely gathered by Dida, came anywhere near to breaking the deadlock in the remainder of the first half. Milan may have been happy to play the waiting game in the opening period but they came out with all guns blazing in the second half. Crespo had a great chance in the 52nd minute. The former Lazio striker ghosted in behind the Roma defence where he brilliantly controlled a 50-yard pass with his right foot before volleying a shot from his left foot that was blocked by Curci's legs. Milan then went close with a rising shot from Gennaro Gattuso that narrowly missed the crossbar. Totti stung the hands of Dida soon after as Roma tried to reply, but it was Milan who finally got the breakthrough with Crespo in the 63rd minute. Kakha Kaladze found space on the left wing before curling a brilliant cross into the far post where Crespo beat Panucci in the air to plant a downward header past Curci.
Milan had two opportunities to extend their lead in the next few minutes. The first one saw Curci brilliantly keep out Kaladze's half-volley from a corner and then Kaka fired wide when he really should have scored after latching onto a clever Kaladze back-heel on the edge of the six-yard box. The Rossoneri then got the second goal their domination deserved in the 69th minute when Pirlo calmly slotted home the resulting spot-kick after Panucci was ajudged to have kept out Crespo's goalbound header with his arm. There was no way back for Roma after that and the defeat means that Conti's men are now 10 points adrift from the fourth position, the last Champions League slot, with nine games left to play.