Every single one of Manchesters 7, yes 7 goals, was a beautiful completion of strong attacking movement. Manchester played from the first minute like a team in charge of their destiny. They were unstoppable. Having said that, Roma, in theory could have stopped them, and their collapse last night will inspire much introspection and evaluation. For Roma to go from the peak of beating one of Europes Premier teams 2-1 to the depths of a 7-1 thrashing by that same team less than a week later writes one of their greatest victories, and their worst defeat, almost simultaneously into their club history.
It was a night of coulda, shoulda, woulda: Roma coulda come back even from the 3-0 hole they put themselves into early. Michael Carrick scored in the 11th minute with a perfectly placed chip over Doni, who made no move to stop it. 6 minutes later suprise starter Alan Smith struck, and before Roma had caught their breath from going down two goals in the first twenty minutes they had gone down three goals in the first twenty minutes thanks to a cool finish by Rooney. Even that, backbreaking though it was, didn’t need to spell Roma’s end. They were down only 4-2 on aggregate and could’ve pulled themselves back into the match, but nobodies deluding themselves, that would be asking alot: Manchester was threatening to run away with the game (if they hadn’t already.) However after some back and forth play Roma shoulda scored before the half at least, to stem the tide and turn the momentum, bringing themselves some hope for the second half. And they woulda, they had some chances but lacked finish. All Manchester did was complete offensive actions with pretty goals; C. Ronaldo scored a goal in the 44th minute to make it 4-o going into the half. The game was well over.
