BAD DAY FOR ITALY

Last updated : 12 April 2007 By Ed

From the Guardian

Italy's front-page headline writers struggled yesterday to sum up the scale of Manchester United's 7-1 Champions League slaughter of Roma.

"A historic rout for Italian football," screamed the football daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, while La Repubblica led a front page editorial with "Goodbye dreams, Roma humiliated in Manchester." La Stampa ran the more succinct "Roma Hell", beaten for brevity only by Il Messaggero's "Oh No".

Contending with Ronaldo's dribbling, the Roma players "looked like car-sick kids who vomit their elevenses at the first sharp curve", the paper wrote.

Francesco Totti, christened "Captain Disaster" by La Gazzetta Dello Sport and accused by La Repubblica of going missing on big nights, described it as the saddest night of his life. "Describing each goal would just be sadistic," wrote Corriere della Sera, going on to quote the Roma coach, Luciano Spalletti, who was rather less reticent.

"Every shot finished in the back of the net," he said incredulously, adding: "What would I change if I could do it again? Stay at home."

La Stampa saved some of its most dramatic prose for the pre-match crowd disturbances outside Old Trafford, likening the travelling Roma supporters to the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, facing drunken Manchester United fans resembling "a million Persians".

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