Brace from Erik Lamela sinks the Viola, as Luis Enrique’s men set up a date with Juventus in the quarter-finals of the competition...
A.S Roma beat Fiorentina 3-0 in the last 16 round of the Coppa Italia at Stadio Olimpico Rome on Wednesday, January 11th, 2012.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fabio-Borini-c13163 scored the other goal for the Giallorossi. The Giallorossi will now face Juventus in the quarter-finals of the competition.
Both teams made several changes to their starting line-up from the weekend Serie A fixtures. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Adem-Ljajic-c3612 started for the Viola in a 3-5-2 setup.
Roma dominated the early minutes of the game, and enjoyed majority of the possession. However, the first real goal-scoring opportunity fell for the Viola, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Stevan-Jovetic-c34163 threaded a lovely pass to Ljajic, who looped his shot harmlessly over the goalkeeper.
A minute later, Jovetic played another delightful pass to the Serbian, whose shot was brilliantly saved by http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Maarten-Stekelenburg-c22998.
The hosts continued to struggle as Fiorentina bombarded their defence with several attacks. Fiorentina once again came close to scoring in the 19th minute, when Valon Behrami’s cross caused panic in the Roma box, but Stekelenburg once again came to his team’s rescue, and smothered the ball to safety.
The Giallorossi had their first real goal-scoring opportunity of the game, when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Francesco-Totti-c13940’s angled shot was nicely saved by Neto.
The first-half did not see any further action, as Fiorentina were clearly the better of the two sides in the first 45 minutes.
Enrique made a change during the interval, and brought in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Simone-Perrotta-c33592 for rookie, Federico Viviani, who had a poor first-half.
Roma started the second-half at a lively pace, and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 star zipped past the Fiorentina defence, but his shot could not test the visiting goalkeeper.
The Giallorossi finally managed to break the deadlock in the 53rd minute. Totti’s pass deflected off two Fiorentina players before Erik Lamela guided it into the back of the net to make it 1-0 for the hosts.
The visitors came to close an immediate equaliser, but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Manuel-Pasqual-c23430 delayed his shot, and Stekelenburg came to his team’s rescue.
Roma continued to dominate the proceedings and doubled their advantage through Lamela in the 66th minute. Fabio Borini’s lovely near post effort was saved by Neto, but the rebound was played into the path of Totti, who laid the ball for Lamela to slot it home from close range to make it 2-0 for the hosts.
The hosts grew in confidence as the game went on, and Borini’s strike in the 75th minute killed the game. Neto’s poor goal-kick fell into the path of the former Swansea man, who finished with aplomb to make it 3-0 for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roma-c31603.
A superb performance in the second-half saw the Giallorossi advance to the quarter-finals of Coppa Italia.
Roma: Stekelenburg; http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Cicinho-c9251 (Jose Angel 68), Kjaer, Heinze, Taddei; Gago, Viviani (Perrotta 46), Greco; Lamela, Totti, Bojan (Borini 62)
Fiorentina: http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Neto-c27624; Natali, Camporese, Nastasic; Salifu, Pasqual (Vargas 68), Montolivo, Cassani, Behrami (Lazzari 79); Ljajic (Cerci 62), Jovetic
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