Roma disappointed their home crowd Saturday as promoted Cesena took home a scoreless draw from the Stadio Olimpico.
“Let’s start with three points. We are Roma,” coach Claudio Ranieri had said ahead of his men’s Serie A debut. It was the best way to forget a 3—1 defeat suffered against Inter Milan on August 21 in the Italian Supercup.
Small—town Cesena did not look like a side that has been away from the top flight for 19 years and were fully competitive on the physical level against the giants from the capital, who closed the past season in second place.
Missing from Roma’s line-up was new Brazilian arrival Adriano as the former—Inter striker injured himself while training and is to be out for about a month.
After a very fast and evenly balanced start, Roma had good chances through captain Francesco Totti, who fired narrowly wide, and Daniele De Rossi, whose effort on 35 minutes found Francesco Antonioli ready to deflect.
The goalkeeper, who turns 41 in mid—September and won a scudetto with Roma in 2001, denied the international at the end of a hammering action that was followed by a dangerous counter attack from the guests.
In a previous fast action from Cesena, Japanese defender Yuto Nagatomo had the guests’ best chance in the first half, but squandered off a deep feed from the in—form forward Emanuele Giaccherini.
Cesena lost some of their speed after the break, but never settled for a purely defensive game and threatened with Ezequiel Schelotto before a searing Totti shot after the hour signalled a switch of gears from Roma.
The red—yellows revved up their game, but saw their ex—custodian performs crucial saves on attempts by Mirko Vucinic and Rodrigo Taddei, while Totti again fired wide by a hairsbreadth.
A final save from Antonioli on a Matteo Brighi break in injury time allowed Cesena to snatch a precious point in the top flight after two promotions in the past two seasons.
In an earlier game that opened the 2010—11 season, a spectacular overhead kick from substitute Giandomenico Mesto lifted visiting Genoa to a 1—0 win over Udinese at the rainy Friuli stadium.
The midfielder’s feat spiced up a fairly dull game as defence ruled despite the presence of veteran strikers Antonio Di Natale and Luca Toni, who left the pitch with an injury on 40 minutes.
Title holders Inter play at Bologna late Monday after the 2—0 defeat suffered Friday against Atletico Madrid in the European Supercup.
