the matches of Rome between Christmas and Santo Stefano
There are only three official precedents in which the Rome was engaged on 25th December. In 1938 the first time you go to the field on the very day of Christmas, in Italian Cup and the outcome is optimal: a Pesaro the Giallorossi pass with a round 4-0 signed by handbags (brace), Thigh And Alghisi. Pathway 1955 and the 1960 two disappointing results arrive: first a ko in Turin against the grenade (1955), then a equal without a goal in Lecco (1960). The latter is expensive: Roma, on the eve of the match, were alone at the top of the table, but the draw allows Inter to join us. Among the ranks of Lecco, however, the former Giallorossi captain Amos plays cardarelli.
The matches play in Santo Stefano
The collection of games played by Roma on December 26, Boxing Day, is much richer. Already in the first year of life, in 1927, the Giallorossi took the field in what it would later be named “Saint Stephen”. Garbutt’s men, at the Appio Motovelodrome, they beat the Dominant 4-2, a recently founded Genoese team. It’s Luigi Ziroli to open the scoring; the opponents overturn it, but in the end an own goal and the goals from Bussich and Ziroli again give us the success. The day is remembered, in addition to the first match played in Santo Stefano, for the earthquake felt by the fans present in the plant. Shortly after 16.00 a seismic movement with epicenter in Nemi makes the spectators tremble e empty the stadium, fortunately not causing serious injuries.
In 1948, over twenty years later, in Turin, against Juventus, ends with the score 0-0. On the day after Christmas of 1954 Rome third in the standings beats 2-0 Triestina. A curious episode of the match is the gift, delivered at the beginning of the game, of a bronze wolf by Captain Venturi to the opposing captain. More than ten years later, in 1965, Roma returned to play, and to win, in Santo Stefano: 1-0 in Florence with a goal from Francesconi. In the 1971 1-0 with Bologna Franzot signs it, but the protagonist is the nineteen-year-old goalkeeper Francesco Quintini: on his debut in Serie A, he performs a series of miracles that allows Roma to obtain victory, and at the end of the match he collects the compliments of the “Magician” Herrera.
I am instead two precedents in the “Boxing Day” in the Italian Cup. The first corresponds to Roma’s first match in the competition, in 1935: 4-0 at the home of Foggia. The second is a 2-2 a Naples in 1937, a match that was later won by the opponents in extra time.
The last precedent dates back to the 2018-19 season, when mister By Francesco faces the Sassuolo by De Zerbi. The race is immediately downhill thanks to Perotti’s goals from a penalty and Schick. In the second half, a nineteen-year-old named Nicolò Zaniolo offers a sample of the technical skills possessed. It is 59 ‘and number 22 receives the ball on the right, accelerates and focuses on entering the opponent’s area; with a feint he avoids a defender, then sits him down with the goalkeeper Advice, and finally deposits the ball with a little dig inside the door under the Curva Nord. It is the first goal in Serie A for Zaniolo. At the moment of the constitution, the public reserved the first of many standing ovations.
