(Cremona celebrates victory with passion. (Source: The Independent)
So far this season, Roma are in the top four of the league, while Inter Milan have suffered defeats. Meanwhile, AC Milan and Lazio have been winning. If Roma wanted to tie for second place with AC Milan in the table, they only needed to beat the lowest ranked team, Cremona, in this round of matches. However, Roma lost by a score of 1-2. Not only did they fail to achieve their goal, but manager Jose Mourinho was suspended for two matches due to a red card, missing the next round of the match with Juventus.
For this clash, both Roma and Cremona used similar formations. Roma stuck to a 3-4-2-1 formation, while Cremona went with a 3-4-3, which at times shifted to a 3-5-2. Mourinho was aware of the importance of the game, and apart from Smalling's suspension, which saw him replaced by Koumoumboula, and a different lineup from the one that played in the midweek game, Wijnaldum rotated in for veteran Martial in midfield, and Abraham made his return from injury to be joined in the starting lineup by Belotti.
At the beginning of the match, Cremona set up their defense in the midfield without a full high-pressure stare-down. However, whenever the Roma center backs held the ball, Cremona would press all the way up to form a staring defense. This defense strategy was used throughout the match.
In the early stages of the game, the Roma players were able to make small combinations down the right, with Dybala pulling back to make a play and then passing the ball into the gap behind the opposition.
However, when the ball was passed upfield, Cremona's retreat was swift and the Roma receivers failed to arrive in time, resulting in the ball carrier being unable to get a pass in place and failing to pose much of a threat to the opposition defense.
Due to Smalling's suspension, Ibanez moved from the left back position to the center. Although Ibáñez is good at up-tempo tackles and holding the ball up, he was unable to utilize his characteristics in the middle. Meanwhile, Koumboula's lack of ability to hold the ball up and push it forward led to a lack of attacking power on the left side in the first half, and had to rely on sporadic attacks on the right and long passes from the back to find opportunities.
Roma's goal conceded in the first half was precisely due to the fact that after a big ball out was snapped up by the opponent, the defense missed its stare and was broken up by a great shot from the opponent.
This sudden goal put Roma behind early on. Cremona didn't let the lead go to their head. Seeing that Roma couldn't break through the man-marking defense, they pressed on the defense and made Roma pass the ball forward, thus losing the ball continuously.
In the first half, Roma had just four shots on goal, no shots on target, a pass success rate of just 78% and lost possession as many as 92 times to fall behind 0-1.
In the second half of the match, Mourinho had an argument with the fourth referee and was subsequently red-carded by the referee. Despite the coach being sent off, Roma still didn't have much to deal with. In the face of Cremona's all-out pressure, the midfield, except for Dybala's retreat to receive the ball, other players did not provide much help to the backfield players. Once the ball carrier is targeted by the opponent, he often drops the ball or passes it back, which makes it difficult for Roma to organize an attack.
Seeing that the situation could not be opened, Mourinho changed five players between 64 and 68 minutes, including Abraham, Xavi, Solbakken, Matic and Karsdorp, and adjusted the formation to 4-2-3-1. After Abraham came out of the game, Roma's passes were no longer just the pivot point of the strikers, but the ball was passed directly into the space behind the opposing defenders, and the tactical adjustment was quickly seen the effect.
Although Abraham missed a great chance, it was the same tactic again a minute later when a long pass from Mancini Jr. saw wingback Spinazzola successfully reverse offside, take the ball unmarked in the penalty area position and push it home with ease to finally equalize Roma's score.
After the goal, Roma continued to create chances, Dybala shot from the edge of the penalty area was too square, and Xavi succeeded in a counter-offside, but when he tried to break through the goalkeeper, he was pivoted to the ball and failed to complete the shot.
