2007–08 A.S. Roma season

Roma
2007–08 season
Chairman Rosella Sensi
Manager Luciano Spalletti
Serie A 2nd
Coppa Italia Winners
UEFA Champions League Quarter-finals
Top goalscorer League:
Francesco Totti (14)
All:
Francesco Totti (18)

During the 2007–08 football season A.S. Roma played the 75th Serie A season in its history. As in the previous season, Roma achieved second place in Serie A behind Internazionale, but had the chance to win the Championship until the last match.

Further, because giallorossi won the 2006–07 Coppa Italia, they played the Supercoppa Italiana for the second consecutive time against Internazionale, and won the trophy thanks to a 1–0 victory in the first match of the season in San Siro.

In the European competitions, Roma played 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and, starting from the group stage, beat Real Madrid in the Round of 16, but lost to the eventual champions Manchester United in the quarter-finals.

The last match of the season was the 2007–08 Coppa Italia final against Internazionale, the fourth consecutive final between the two teams. The giallorossi won 2–1, their ninth Coppa Italia triumph, a record shared with Juventus.

Season review

Pre-season & transfers

Early pre-season was dominated by the protracted talks involving the renewal of Cristian Chivu's contract[1] and the many rumours that linked him to many other teams. In fact, the Romanian defender refused a new contract because he already knew he had an offer of about €4M from Internazionale.[2] For this reason in early June Roma extended Philippe Mexès' contract until 2011[3] and signed Brazilian 2007 Copa América winning defender Juan from Bayer 04 Leverkusen.

The speculation involving Chivu lasted almost two months, and after that he refused to extend his contract with AS Roma. The player also turned down offers from Barcelona and Real Madrid,[4] stating that if he was not transferred to Inter he would keep playing for AS Roma until his contract ran out the summer of 2008.[5] For this reason Roma's supporters saw him as a "traitor" and whistled him during a training session in Stadio Flaminio;[6] even Roma's director of football Daniele Pradé stated that the Romanian defender made "incalculable damage" to the club because Real Madrid's offer was higher than the others.[7] Eventually, on 27 July, when it seemed that Chivu would have been a giallorosso until the end of his contract period, Inter made a final offer of 14M€ plus the co-ownership of Marco Andreolli.[8]

Roma also signed Ludovic Giuly, Mauro Esposito and, at the end of August, Cicinho. The loans of Christian Wilhelmsson and Francesco Tavano were not renewed, while Vincenzo Montella was loaned to Sampdoria as he wanted more first-team football. However, Roma bought full ownership of David Pizarro, Mirko Vučinić and Marco Cassetti.

The signings of Matteo Brighi, Ahmed Barusso and Vitorino Antunes further enlarged the squad, while young players such as Aleandro Rosi, Ricardo Faty, Stefano Okaka, Valerio Virga, Alessio Cerci, Andrea Giacomini and Daniele Galloppa were loaned to lower league clubs to gain experience.[9][10]

First part of the season

AS Roma began the season 2007-08 on 19 August 2007 with the Supercoppa Italiana final in San Siro against Internazionale. In the previous season, Roma had lost that match 4–3, but on this occasion succeeded in winning (by 1–0) the second Supercup of its history thanks to a penalty by Daniele De Rossi after a foul by Nicolás Burdisso on Francesco Totti.[11]

The 2007–08 Serie A began with Roma as one of the favourites, after Internazionale, Milan and together with Juventus.[12] The first matches confirmed there expectations, in fact in their championship début Roma won 2-0 against Palermo with goals from Philippe Mexès and Alberto Aquilani, who also scored in the second match against Siena.

Roma were drawn from the second pot of the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League in Group F, together with Manchester United, Sporting CP and Dynamo Kyiv.

After the pause for Italy's Euro 2008 qualifying matches against France and Ukraine in which Daniele De Rossi, Simone Perrotta, Christian Panucci and Alberto Aquilani played, Roma began to play a series of difficult games in a short lapse of time: in fact, from 16 September until 3 October, they played against Reggina (winning 0-2), Dynamo Kyiv(winning 2-0), Juventus (drawing 2-2), Fiorentina (drawing 2-2), Internazionale (losing 1-4) and Manchester United (losing 1-0).

Roma won 2-0 in the first match against the Calabrese team thanks to Juan's first goal, who volleyed the ball with his heel,[13] and the second goal by Francesco Totti, who also scored in the Champions League 2-0 victory against Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv.
In the following two games against Juventus and Fiorentina, Roma were leading 2-1 but were not able to win, conceding the equalizer in the last minutes of both games. After the bianconeri on Sunday, the viola on Wednesday, Roma had to face, in only one week, even Internazionale on Saturday 29 September. The giallorossi lost that match 1-4, but the defeat was assisted by a handball in the penalty area from Ludovic Giuly who was sent off and cost Roma a penalty, after which the numerical inferiority and the disadvantage opened the nerazzurri's overwhelming victory.[14] -

After losing their position as Serie A league leaders, Roma had to face Manchester United for the first time since their débâcle the previous season at the hands of the English champions in the quarter-finals where they had lost 7-1 . Roma lost this time too, but missed many chances,[15] and even the scorer of the only goal of the game Wayne Rooney stated that "Roma deserved more".[16] In addition to ending the first match of the season without scoring a goal, the giallorossi lost Alberto Aquilani to a groin injury[17] that would keep him out of play for more than a month,[18] preventing him from playing the derby.

Roma won the next match 3-0 against Parma, thanks to two goals by Francesco Totti and one by Mancini, thus leaving behind a poor run of two draws and two defeats before the break for the Euro 2008 qualifying matches. The following match was, instead, very disappointing, firstly because Roma played the former Derby del Sole against Napoli only with the season-ticket holders, due to the high risk of fights between the Roman and Neapolitan supporters.[19] In the second place, the match finished in a thrilling 4-4 draw, that put the giallorossi 5 points from the top of the Serie A.

In the third Champions League group stage match, Roma had to face Sporting CP and, though Francesco Totti was injured, the team won thanks to goals by Juan and Mirko Vučinić, who dribbled two Portuguese defenders before firing[20] and assuring Roma second place in Group F, after three matches. The Montenegrin captain was also the protagonist of the second consecutive victory in San Siro against Milan, scoring the only goal of the game.[21]

On 31 October 2007 the giallorossi played the Derby della Capitale against Lazio without three important first team players (Francesco Totti, Alberto Aquilani and Rodrigo Taddei), all out with injuries. Despite this, Roma won 3-2 thanks to the third goal in three matches of Mirko Vučinić (evening the score after a goal from Lazio's Tommaso Rocchi), the second goal of Mancini and the winning goal by Simone Perrotta.[22]

Players

As of 22 December 2007:
In italics, players involved in transfer during the season

No. Player Pos Lge
Apps
Lge
Gls
CL
Apps
CL
Gls
CI[23]
Apps
CI
Gls
Tot
Apps
Tot
Gls
First Match with AS Roma Previous Club[24]
Goalkeepers
1 Italy Gianluca Curci GK 1 (1) -4 1 -1 5 -5 7 (1) -10 19 December 2004 AS Roma Primavera
25 Italy Carlo Zotti GK - - - - - - - - 10 May 2003 AS Roma Primavera
27 Brazil Júlio Sérgio Bertagnoli GK - - - - - - - - - América FC
32 Brazil Doni GK 37 -34 9 -10 3 (1) -1 48 (1) -45 23 October 2005 EC Juventude
Defenders
2 Italy Christian Panucci RB 21 (6) 5 5 (1) 1 5 (1) 0 31 (8) 6 23 September 2001 AS Monaco
3 Brazil Cicinho RB 17 (12) 2 4 (3) 0 5 (2) 0 26 (17) 2 26 August 2007 Real Madrid
4 Brazil Juan CB 19 (3) 2 8 1 2 0 29 (3) 3 2 September 2007 Bayer Leverkusen
5 France Philippe Mexès CB 30 (1) 1 9 0 5 1 43 (1) 2 12 September 2004 AJ Auxerre
15 Portugal Vitorino Antunes LB 0 (5) 0 1 0 3 0 4 (5) 0 12 December 2007 Paços de Ferreira
21 Italy Matteo Ferrari CB 16 0 3 (2) 0 2 0 23 (2) 0 19 September 2004 Parma FC
22 Italy Max Tonetto LB 33 (2) 1 6 (2) 0 5 (3) 0 45 (7) 1 9 September 2006 UC Sampdoria
77 Italy Marco Cassetti RB 21 (6) 0 7 1 6 (1) 0 34 (7) 1 24 September 2006 US Lecce
Midfielders
7 Chile David Pizarro PM 28 (3) 3 7 (3) 2 2 (3) 0 36 (9) 5 9 September 2006 Inter Milan
8 Italy Alberto Aquilani MF 11 (10) 3 4 (1) 0 5 1 20 (11) 4 10 May 2003 AS Roma Primavera
11 Brazil Rodrigo Taddei W 25 (1) 6 6 1 3 (1) 0 34 (2) 7 28 August 2005 AC Siena
14 France Ludovic Giuly W 18 (14) 6 5 (4) 2 6 (1) 1 29 (18) 8 19 August 2007 Barcelona FC
16 Italy Daniele De Rossi MF 34 4 9 (1) 0 7 1 50 (1) 5 30 October 2001 AS Roma Primavera
20 Italy Simone Perrotta MF 25 (4) 5 6 1 5 (1) 1 36 (5) 7 12 September 2004 Chievo Verona
26 Romania Adrian Piţ W - - - - 1 0 1 0 19 December 2007 AC Bellinzona
29 Ghana Ahmed Barusso DM 0 (3) 0 1 (1) 0 - - 1 (4) 0 7 October 2007 Rimini CFC
30 Brazil Mancini W 27 (4) 8 9 2 5 (1) 3 41 (5) 13 31 August 2003 Atlético Mineiro
33 Italy Matteo Brighi MF 6 (18) 1 0 (2) 0 3 (3) 0 9 (23) 1 19 August 2007 Chievo Verona
Forwards
9 Montenegro Mirko Vučinić FW 24 (9) 9 4 (4) 4 6 (1) 1 34 (12) 14 22 October 2006 US Lecce
10 Italy Francesco Totti FW 24 14 6 1 3 (1) 3 31 (1) 18 28 March 1993 AS Roma Primavera
18 Italy Mauro Esposito WF 0 (8) 0 1 (5) 0 1 (1) 0 2 (14) 0 26 September 2007 Cagliari Calcio
36 Italy Claudio Della Penna FW - - - - 0 (1) 0 0 (1) 0 19 December 2007 AS Roma Primavera

Transfers

In

Romania MF Adrian Piţ (free transfer, from Bellinzona)[25]
Ghana MF Ahmed Barusso (co-ownership from Rimini)[26]
Italy GK Carlo Zotti (loan return from Sampdoria)
Switzerland MF Daniel Unal (loan from Bellinzona)
Chile MF David Pizarro (full ownership from Inter)
Honduras MF Edgar Álvarez (loan return from Messina)
Brazil DF Juan (full ownership from Bayer Leverkusen)[27]
Italy FW Keivan Zarineh (free transfer, from Rieti)[25]
France MF Ludovic Giuly (from Barcelona)[28]
Italy DF Marco Andreolli (co-ownership from Inter Milan)[29]
Italy DF Marco Cassetti (full ownership from Lecce)
Italy MF Matteo Brighi (loan return from Chievo)
Italy MF Mauro Esposito (co-ownership from Cagliari Calcio)[30]
Montenegro FW Mirko Vucinic (full ownership from Lecce)
Ghana DF Samuel Kuffour (loan return from Livorno)
Democratic Republic of the Congo FW Shabani Nonda (loan return from Blackburn Rovers)
Brazil DF Cicinho (full ownership from Real Madrid)
Portugal DF Vitorino Antunes (loan from FC Paços de Ferreira)

Out

Nigeria FW Adewade Dauda Wahab (loan, to Bellinzona)
Italy FW Alessandro Simonetta (full ownership, to Arezzo)
Italy FW Alessandro Tulli (co-ownership renewed, to Lecce)
Italy FW Alessio Cerci (loan, to Pisa)[31]
Italy MF Andrea Giacomini (co-ownership, to Vicenza)[32]
Sweden MF Christian Wilhelmsson (end of loan, to Nantes)
Romania DF Cristian Chivu (to Inter Milan)[33]
Italy DF Damiano Ferronetti (full ownership, to Parma)
Italy FW Daniele Corvia (full ownership, to Siena)
Italy MF Daniele Galloppa (co-ownership, to Siena)[34]
Italy DF Daniele Magliocchetti (loan, to Cagliari)[35]
Italy FW Francesco Tavano (end of loan, to Valencia)
Italy DF Gianluca Comotto (full ownership, to Torino)
Italy MF Gianluca Galasso (co-ownership, to Bari)[32]
Costa Rica DF Gilberto Martinez (end of loan, to Brescia)
Italy DF Giuseppe Scurto (full ownership, to Chievo)
Senegal MF Ricardo Faty (loan, to Bayer Leverkusen)[36]
Brazil DF Rodrigo Defendi (end of loan, to Tottenham)
Italy MF Simone Palermo (loan, to Rimini)[37]
Italy FW Stefano Okaka Chuka (loan, to Modena)[38]
Italy MF Valerio Virga (loan, to Grosseto)[39]
Italy FW Vincenzo Montella (loan, to Sampdoria)[40]
Italy FW Keivan Zarineh (to Cisco Roma)[41]
Democratic Republic of the Congo FW Shabani Nonda (to Galatasaray)[42]
Honduras MF Edgar Álvarez (on loan to Livorno)
Italy DF Gianluca Freddi (to U.S. Grosseto F.C.)[43]
Italy GK Pietro Pipolo (on loan to Potenza S.C.)[44]
Ghana DF Samuel Kuffour (on loan to AFC Ajax)

Competitions

Serie A

Main article: 2007–08 Serie A

Matches

Coppa Italia

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

UEFA Champions League

Group stage

Group F
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
England Manchester United 6510134+916
Italy Roma 6321116+511
Portugal Sporting CP 621398+17
Ukraine Dynamo Kyiv 6006419150

Knockout phase

Round of 16
Quarter-finals

References

  1. Chivu negociaza noul contract cu AS Roma
  2. Chivu niente rinnovo!
  3. PROLUNGATO IL CONTRATTO PER LE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE PHILIPPE MEXES
  4. Chivu: Il Real Madrid si può rifiutare
  5. Chivu: "O vado all'Inter o rimango alla Roma"
  6. Spalletti: Dispiaciuto per fischi a Chivu
  7. Chivu resta alla Roma e Pradè si infuria
  8. CESSIONE DEL DIRITTO ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE CRISTIAN EUGEN CHIVU
  9. OPERAZIONI DI TRASFERIMENTO DEI DIRITTI ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI CERCI ALESSIO E RICARDO FATY
  10. OPERAZIONI DI TRASFERIMENTO DEI DIRITTI ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI GALASSO, GALLOPPA, GIACOMINI, MAGLIOCHETTI E PALERMO
  11. La Supercoppa alla Roma!
  12. Questa Roma è da scudetto, c'è da scommetterci...
  13. Reggina Roma 0-2 16/9 2007, Juan (0-1)
  14. L'Inter travolge la Roma all'Olimpico
  15. Il rammarico di Spalletti "Troppe palle-gol mancate"
  16. Rooney ammette: "La Roma meritava il pareggio"
  17. Roma stavolta a testa alta, ma rivince il Manchester
  18. Aquilani, almeno un mese di stop
  19. Roma-Napoli senza tifosi ospiti
  20. Mirko Vucinic si sblocca e la Roma vince 2-1
  21. Vucinic affonda il Milan
  22. La Roma si riprende il derby
  23. The 2007–08 Coppa Italia appearances and goals also include the Supercoppa Italiana match
  24. Excluding the loans
  25. 25.0 25.1 AS Roma (2007-07-13). "SOTTOSCRIZIONE CONTRATTI ECONOMICI PER LE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI ZARINEH E PIT" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
  26. channel4.com (2007-06-15). "Barusso lands Roma deal". Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  27. "Aquisizione a titolo definitivo del diritto alle prestazioni sportive del calciatore Juan Silveira dos Santos" (PDF). asroma.it (in Italian). AS Roma. 21 June 2007. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
  28. AS Roma (2007-07-17). "ACQUISIZIONE DEL DIRITTO ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE LUDOVIC GIULY" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  29. AS Roma (2007-07-27). "ACQUISIZIONE A TITOLO DEFINITIVO CON ACCORDO DI PARTECIPAZIONE DEL DIRITTO ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE MARCO ANDREOLLI" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  30. AS Roma (2007-07-04). "ACQUISIZIONE A TITOLO DEFINITO CON ACCORDI DI PARTECIPAZIONE DEL DIRITTO ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE MAURO ESPOSITO" (PDF) (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2007.
  31. "Alessio Cerci in nerazzurro" (in Italian). Pisa Calcio. 2007-07-12. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  32. 32.0 32.1 "OPERAZIONI DI TRASFERIMENTO DEI DIRITTI ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI GALASSO, GALLOPPA, GIACOMINI, MAGLIOCHETTI E PALERMO" (PDF) (in Italian). AS Roma. 2007-07-09. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-09.
  33. "CESSIONE DEL DIRITTO ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE CRISTIAN EUGEN CHIVU" (PDF) (in Italian). AS Roma. 2007-07-27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  34. "Galloppa in comproprietà" (in Italian). AC Siena. 2007-07-06. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  35. http://www.cagliaricalcio.net/news/notizia.asp?idNotizia=3927&type=0&id_menu=2 Arriva Magliocchetti
  36. "Bayer 04 verpflichtet Ricardo Faty" (in German). Bayer 04 Leverkusen. 2007-07-06. Archived from the original on 2007-07-04. Retrieved 2007-07-06.
  37. "BARUSSO alla Roma, PALERMO al Rimini !" (in Italian). Rimini Calcio. 2007-07-05. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
  38. "Calciomercato: arriva l'attaccante Stefano Okaka Chuka" (in Italian). Modena FC. 2007-07-12. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  39. "Virga a Grosseto" (in Italian). Sportal. 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
  40. "TRASFERIMENTO A TITOLO TEMPORANEO DEL CALCIATORE VINCENZO MONTELLA" (PDF) (in Italian). AS Roma. 2007-07-13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-13.
  41. "UFFICIALE: Zarineh e Zamperini alla Cisco Roma" (in Italian). TuttoMercatoWeb. 2007-08-12. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
  42. "Shabani Nonda Galatasaray'da" (in Turkish). Galatasaray. 2007-08-31. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
  43. "Dalla Roma arriva Gianluca Freddi" (in Italian). Grosseto. 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
  44. "Potenza: Presentati Pipolo e Beva" (in Italian). SoccerPuglia.it. 2007-08-22. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-22.