Real Original brings life back to Bernabeu, out of Roma

Roma went into the game in equally bad shape, however, and the Italians, playing under Ezio Sella following coach Rudi Voeller’s weekend resignation, never looked like having the nerve to hold on to their lead.

Raul chipped in from the edge of the box to get the home side back into the game six minutes before the break, Luis Figo scored from the penalty spot and then set up Raul for his second and Roberto Carlos blasted in the fourth 10 minutes from time.

Victory for Real, playing their first European game under Mariano Garcia Remon, gave them their first points in Group B, after a 3-0 defeat away to Bayer Leverkusen in their opening match.

Defeat leaves Roma facing a desperate fight to make it through to the knock-out phase, after they were consigned to a 3-0 defeat when their opening match at home to Dynamo Kiev had to be stopped when the referee was hit by a missile from the crowd.

The Roma players only had themselves to blame this time after squandering the two-goal lead handed to them by a Real side who were looking a nervous wreck. The first came in the third minute, when Real failed to clear a corner and let in De Rossi to take a lofted through ball from Traianos Dellas and clip it past Iker Casillas. Real, their pride stung, started to attack with a bit of purpose but with Zinedine Zidane playing at half pace on his return from a shoulder injury, they lacked the finesse to unlock Roma’s defence.

Roma were going forward only half heartedly themselves but Francesco Totti’s astute pass wrong-footed the home Defence in the 22nd minute, Simone Perrotta touched the ball back and Cassano shot in off the post. Crucially, Real managed to claim a goal back before the break, when Raul swept the ball over Ivan Pelizzoli from the edge of the box.

Roma should have restored the two-goal lead when Cassano jinked inside the box and crossed for Christian Panucci to head wide at the far post. The Italians paid for that when Panucci pushed Raul in the box in the 72nd minute and Figo slotted in the penalty.

Real were the only serious candidates for the win by that stage. Raul flicked the ball in from Figo’s drilled cross at the near post and Roberto Carlos made certain of victory with his trademark effort from outside the area.

(Reuters)

ALL THE RESULTS

GROUP A

Olympiakos Piraeus 1 v Liverpool 0
(Ieroklis Stoltidis)
AS Monaco 2 v Deportivo La Coruna 0
(Mohamed Kallon, Javier Saviola)

GROUP B

Dynamo Kiev 4 v Bayer Leverkusen 2
(Diego Rincon – 2, Florin Cernat – 2; Andriy Voronin, Jens Novotny)
Real Madrid 4 v AS Roma 2
(Raul – 2, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos; Daniel de Rossi, Antonio Cassano)

GROUP C

Juventus 1 v Maccabi Tel Aviv 0
(Mauro Camoranesi)
Bayern Munich 4 v Ajax Amsterdam 0
(Roy Makaay – 3, Ze Roberto)

GROUP D

Manchester United 6 v Fenerbahce 2
(Wayne Rooney – 3, Ryan Giggs, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, David Bellion; Marcio Nobre, Tuncay Sanli)
Sparta Prague 1 v Olympique Lyon 2
(Tomas Jun; Mickael Essien, Sylvain Wiltord)