AS Roma advance in Champions League after 1-1 match against CFR Cluj
Italian club AS Roma are through to the next round of the Champions League after playing against Romanian team CFR Cluj at Stadionul Dr. Constantin Radulescu, in a boring Group E match that resulted in a 1-1 draw.
The match was largely rather unexciting. Roma dominated the first half, with striker Marco Borriello scoring in the 21st minute. Roma required only one point to take second place in Group E behind Bayern Munich, so this goal seemed
to make certain the fact that Roma would advance to the final 16 stage of the Champions League.
When the second half kicked off, Roma looked to be simply defending their one-goal lead, so there wasn’t too much to see. However, they did look to break quickly on the counter attacks. During the 62nd minute, both the teams decided
to change a few things round. Roma took off their centre back Marco Cassetti as Cicinho took his place; while on the other end, Cluj were ready to change their formation to 4-3-3 as a striker was about to come up for them. It was Sasa Bjelanovic, who came
on in place of Edimar to add that little extra pace and striking ability up front.
As the substitutions took place, Roma found a way to strike on the break as Daniele De Rossi passed the ball perfectly to Francesco Totti who back-heeled it towards Borriello. The former Milan man tried his best to add a second
goal to his name but his effort flew just wide off the target.
Cluj had upped their game in the second half, and Roma were relying too much on their defenders and counter-attacking. Towards the end of the game, this strategy proved not to pay off as Cluj finally managed to seal an equalizer
in the 88th minute. It was Lacina Traore who scored for the Romanians, with a great header to convert Juan Culio's cross. Traore celebrated rather violently, making a rude hand gesture at the crowd, which ended up booing him. It was a very strange
gesture to make at his own fans, especially as he is looking to be moving away from his club soon – although that still remains to be seen in the January transfer window.
There was a chance for Cluj to win it during the last minutes of the game but the Italians defended well and the game ended in a 1-1 draw. AS Roma has now qualified for the next round and are now to be drawn with a top-of-the-table
team on December 17th.
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