Matchday One Rome 17 September 2002 AS ROMA – REAL MADRID CF STADIO OLIMPICO, ROME TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER 2002 at 20.45 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP C, MATCHDAY 1 AS ROMA v REAL MADRID CF Just over a year ago we were remarking that AS Roma could hardly make their UEFA Champions League debut in grander style. The opening fixture at the Stadio Olimpico brought together the champions of Europe’s top two footballing countries, basing our appreciation on UEFA’s annual coefficient ranking lists and, to add even more spice to a tasty clash between the two group favourites, the match also brought Fabio Capello face to face with the club he coached a few years ago and many of the players who were his pupils at the time. Fate has decreed an almost exact replica of last season’s opening fixture in the Stadio Olimpico and, as we said a year ago, a thrilling match is in prospect. Curiously, last season’s encounter represented the first European meeting between the two clubs. AS Roma’s ‘nearest miss’ had been in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup, when Club Atlético de Madrid recorded the only win for a Spanish side against the Italian club in Rome. On the other hand, Real Madrid CF had made 17 visits to Italian clubs, playing 11 times in Milan and 4 in Turin. Those 17 visits had produced only one win – and that was a 1-0 victory over Juventus FC almost 40 years earlier. Four games had ended as draws and the other 12 had been defeats. Since a 1-1 draw in Naples 13 seasons ago, Real Madrid had lost all five games in Italy and had scored only one goal until the 2-2 against S.S. Lazio during the 2000/01 campaign. This is Real Madrid’s seventh UEFA Champions League campaign dating back to 1995/96. They have a good record on matchday one with just one defeat, at AFC Ajax in 1995, in six previous opening matches. Real Madrid are unbeaten in their last five opening day matches against Rosenborg BK (4- 1), Internazionale FC (2-0), Olympiakos Piraeus FC (3-3), Sporting Clube (2-2) and last season’s 2-1 victory in Rome. During last season’s opener on 11 September ball-possession was pretty evenly-shared (49-51% in the Spaniards’ favour) but the visitors had 19 goal attempts (9 0n target) compared with 13 (9) for the home team. Luís Figo (50) and Guti (63) put Real Madrid 2-0 up and Francesco Totti reduced arrears with a 73rd-minute penalty. Fabio Capello fielded: Pelizzoli; Cafú (Balbo 82), Zago, Samuel, Candela; Assunção (Cassano 61), Emerson, Zebina; Totti; Montella (Lima 46) and Batistuta. The unused subs were Antonioli, Aldair, Tomic and Siviglia. Vicente Del Bosque’s line-up was: Casillas; Salgado, Hierro, Karanka, Roberto Carlos; Flavio Conceição, Makelele; Figo, Raúl, McManaman; and Guti (Iván Campo 87). On the bench: César, Geremi, Celades, Solari, Savio and Munitis. Portugese international midfielder Luis Figo will complete 50 UEFA Champions League appearances if he takes part in this game. Real Madrid CF is easily the most successful club in the history of the UEFA Champions League with three title wins in six competitions and a record number of wins (46); goals (157) and points (105) from 77 games. Real Madrid also have the best win percentage of UEFA Press Information Matchday One Rome 17 September 2002 AS ROMA – REAL MADRID CF any club in the competition at 59.7% and average 1.364 points per game – only AFC Ajax has a better points return The Spaniards lost only twice in 17 matches during last season’s success, both away at FC Lokomotiv Moskva (0-2) in the first group phase and then at FC Bayern München (1-2) in the first leg of the quarter-finals. They share the competition record with FC Bayern for winning a group the most times with six wins each. Real has topped their first and second stage groups in each of the last two seasons thus making four successive group successes. AS Roma are starting their second UEFA Champions League campaign. They recorded only three wins in 12 games during last season – two against FC Lokomotiv Moscow in the first stage and then another against FC Barcelona in the second. The Italians put together a run of ten games without defeat (three wins and seven draws) between the loss at home to Real Madrid and the defeat in Liverpool at the end of the second group phase, which eliminated them from the competition. AS Roma coach Fabio Capello took charge of 48 first team games in his only season (1996/97) in charge at the Bernabéu, winning 31, drawing 12 and losing five – three of those losses came in his last six matches as coach. None of the above games, however, were in European competition as Real Madrid had failed to qualify in the previous season. Real Madrid CF began with a 25-game unbeaten run before losing to FC Barcelona in a Spanish Cup match at the end of January 1997. They went on to win the league by two points from Bobby Robson’s FC Barcelona and then, under Jupp Heynckes, lifted the UEFA Champions League title the following season. AS Roma, in keeping with the rest of Italian Serie A clubs, have had to wait longer than expected before opening up in domestic competition. A dispute over television contracts and revenues meant that the start to the season was delayed and did not kick off until Saturday. And it didn’t begin too well for AS Roma who suffered a 2-1 defeat at Bologna in front of a 27,439 crowd at the Renato Dall’Ara. Samuel, Emerson and Cassano all picked up yellow cards as AS Roma slipped to an injury-time defeat after Gabriel Batistuta had put them in front from the penalty spot. The AS Roma team was: Antonioli; Zebina, Samuel, Panucci; Cafú, Tomassi (Totti 66), Emerson, Lima, Candela; Batistuta, Cassano (Montella 46). The unused subs were Pelizzoli, Dellas, Cufre, Fuser and Tomic. Coach Fabio Capello said “I realised that Bologna had already played serious games in the Intertoto Cup and were well-prepared for the start of the season. From our side, I can only be happy with the physical condition of my players. Damiano Tommasi took Totti’s place as team captain.” Capello believes that Italian teams can once again challenge for the dominance of European competitions. “I am sure that Italian teams will return to being protagonists of the top European football competition.” Roma president Franco Sensi said: “The group is made up of one strong team like Real, one reasonably tough team like AEK and an average side in Genk. We have been treated kindly.” Italian international striker Francesco Totti signalled his return to action after injury by playing the last 24 minutes but is suspended from Tuesday’s match. Argentine Gabriel Batistuta and Lima are also suspended, with Guardiola, Cassano and Montella all now coming into the squad reckoning. European champions Real Madrid CF opened the new campaign with the 3-1 victory over Feyenoord in the UEFA Super Cup and raised the curtain on their domestic league UEFA Press Information Matchday One Rome 17 September 2002 AS ROMA – REAL MADRID CF campaign with a comfortable 2-0 home victory over RCD Espanyol. Iván Helguera headed Vicente Del Bosque’s side into the lead after 34 minutes and Steve McManaman added the second two minutes from time. The line-up was: Casillas; Salgado, Hierro, Helguera, Roberto Carlos; Cambiasso (Solari 89), Makelele; Figo (McManaman 82), Zidane, Raúl; and Guti (Morientes 81). The unused subs were César, Pavón, Miñambres and Portillo. Iker Casillas, Michel Salgado, Raúl Bravo, Iván Helguera (in midfield) and Raúl were the starters in Spain’s 2-0 EURO 2004 victory in Greece. Raúl scored the opening goal to bring his tally to 29 in 56 international matches. Claude Makelele and Zinedine Zidane took part in France’s hard-fought 2-1 win in Cyprus. Luís Figo played the first half of Portugal’s friendly in England. Last Wednesday Real Madrid made their debut in the Copa del Rey, travelling the short distance to satellite town San Sebastián de los Reyes to take on the local side from Division 3. Despite going a goal down after 13 minutes, they recorded an 8-1 victory – the club’s highest away win in an official competition. Tote and Javier Portillo both hit hat-tricks with Santiago Solari and Fernando Morientes supplying the other two goals. Vicente Del Bosque fielded only one (Esteban Cambiasso) of the starters from the opening league match in a line-up which read: César; Valdo (Guti 46), Pavón, Rubén, Raúl Bravo; McManaman, Cambiasso (Morientes 60), Celades, Solari; Tote and Portillo. The unused subs were Casillas, Hierro and Salgado. Last Saturday’s big league match against Real Betis Balompié in Seville was nothing like as clear – in fact it was painted in chiaroscuro. Kick-off was delayed 18 minutes due to a floodlight failure; the game was interrupted after 6 minutes because the level of lighting was fluctuating; and, in the 44th minute, the stadium was once again plunged into darkness. International referee Juan Antonio Fernández Marín consulted the captains, gave the stadium personnel ten minutes to solve the problem and, when Betis could offer no guarantees that the second half might be floodlit rather than candlelit, called the game off. It turned out that a fault in a generator was blowing all the fuses.