The Fort Worth Press - Before Leicester, Ranieri's brush with glory with his beloved Roma

USD -
AED 3.673042
AFN 68.112673
ALL 94.198378
AMD 389.366092
ANG 1.801814
AOA 913.000367
ARS 1003.735016
AUD 1.538462
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.70397
BAM 1.877057
BBD 2.018523
BDT 119.468305
BGN 1.87679
BHD 0.376794
BIF 2953.116752
BMD 1
BND 1.347473
BOB 6.908201
BRL 5.801041
BSD 0.99976
BTN 84.384759
BWP 13.658045
BYN 3.27175
BYR 19600
BZD 2.015164
CAD 1.39805
CDF 2871.000362
CHF 0.89358
CLF 0.035441
CLP 977.925332
CNY 7.243041
CNH 7.25914
COP 4389.749988
CRC 509.237487
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 105.825615
CZK 24.326204
DJF 178.031575
DKK 7.158304
DOP 60.252411
DZD 134.221412
EGP 49.650175
ERN 15
ETB 122.388982
EUR 0.95985
FJD 2.27595
FKP 0.789317
GBP 0.798053
GEL 2.740391
GGP 0.789317
GHS 15.795384
GIP 0.789317
GMD 71.000355
GNF 8617.496041
GTQ 7.717261
GYD 209.15591
HKD 7.783855
HNL 25.264168
HRK 7.133259
HTG 131.234704
HUF 395.000354
IDR 15943.55
ILS 3.70796
IMP 0.789317
INR 84.43625
IQD 1309.659773
IRR 42075.000352
ISK 139.680386
JEP 0.789317
JMD 159.268679
JOD 0.709104
JPY 154.76904
KES 129.468784
KGS 86.503799
KHR 4025.145161
KMF 472.503794
KPW 899.999621
KRW 1404.510383
KWD 0.30785
KYD 0.833149
KZT 499.179423
LAK 21959.786938
LBP 89526.368828
LKR 290.973655
LRD 180.450118
LSL 18.040693
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.60489
LYD 4.882192
MAD 10.057392
MDL 18.23504
MGA 4666.25078
MKD 59.052738
MMK 3247.960992
MNT 3397.999946
MOP 8.015644
MRU 39.77926
MUR 46.850378
MVR 15.460378
MWK 1733.576467
MXN 20.427165
MYR 4.468039
MZN 63.910377
NAD 18.040693
NGN 1696.703725
NIO 36.786794
NOK 11.06835
NPR 135.016076
NZD 1.714149
OMR 0.384846
PAB 0.99976
PEN 3.790969
PGK 4.025145
PHP 58.939038
PKR 277.626662
PLN 4.16352
PYG 7804.59715
QAR 3.646048
RON 4.778204
RSD 112.294256
RUB 104.308748
RWF 1364.748788
SAR 3.754429
SBD 8.383555
SCR 13.699038
SDG 601.503676
SEK 11.040175
SGD 1.346604
SHP 0.789317
SLE 22.730371
SLL 20969.504736
SOS 571.332598
SRD 35.494038
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.748021
SYP 2512.529858
SZL 18.034455
THB 34.480369
TJS 10.647152
TMT 3.5
TND 3.17616
TOP 2.342104
TRY 34.572825
TTD 6.790153
TWD 32.583504
TZS 2659.340659
UAH 41.35995
UGX 3694.035222
UYU 42.516436
UZS 12825.951341
VES 46.55914
VND 25419
VUV 118.722009
WST 2.791591
XAF 629.547483
XAG 0.031938
XAU 0.000369
XCD 2.70255
XDR 0.760497
XOF 629.547483
XPF 114.458467
YER 249.925037
ZAR 18.105415
ZMK 9001.203587
ZMW 27.617448
ZWL 321.999592
  • RIO

    -0.2200

    62.35

    -0.35%

  • CMSC

    0.0320

    24.672

    +0.13%

  • NGG

    1.0296

    63.11

    +1.63%

  • RBGPF

    59.2400

    59.24

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0100

    6.79

    -0.15%

  • BTI

    0.4000

    37.38

    +1.07%

  • AZN

    1.3700

    65.63

    +2.09%

  • GSK

    0.2600

    33.96

    +0.77%

  • SCS

    0.2300

    13.27

    +1.73%

  • BP

    0.2000

    29.72

    +0.67%

  • RELX

    0.9900

    46.75

    +2.12%

  • BCE

    0.0900

    26.77

    +0.34%

  • VOD

    0.1323

    8.73

    +1.52%

  • BCC

    3.4200

    143.78

    +2.38%

  • CMSD

    0.0150

    24.46

    +0.06%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    13.21

    -0.15%

Before Leicester, Ranieri's brush with glory with his beloved Roma
Before Leicester, Ranieri's brush with glory with his beloved Roma / Photo: © AFP/File

Before Leicester, Ranieri's brush with glory with his beloved Roma

Claudio Ranieri won the hearts of the football world when he took Leicester City to the 2016 Premier League title, but six years earlier he came within touching distance of an even more romantic achievement -- a league title with his boyhood team Roma.

Text size:

Ranieri, who on Thursday came out of retirement to coach Roma for a third time, took over a side with no points in the early stages of the 2009-10 Serie A season, but after a slow start led the Giallorossi to a 24-match unbeaten run that left them at the summit in Italy with four matches left.

However a tidal wave of emotion came crashing down in one of the most dramatic matches in recent Serie A history, a 2-1 home defeat to Sampdoria which effectively handed Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan the title and the chance to complete a now famous league, Italian Cup and Champions League treble.

The loss, and Inter's 3-1 defeat of Atalanta the previous day, put Mourinho's team two points ahead with three games remaining, a lead that the future European champions would not relinquish.

The match was held at a balmy Stadio Olimpico in Rome and was the last real contest facing Ranieri's team, against an entertaining Samp side featuring Antonio Cassano chasing down a Champions League place.

- Traumatic -

A volcanic opening 45 minutes strengthened the feeling that Ranieri was about to ram Mourinho's insults -- he had called his fellow former Chelsea boss a serial loser and mocked his English -- back down the Portuguese's throat, as Francesco Totti swept the hosts in front early on and continued to pull the strings in a dominating display.

However Samp boss Gigi Delneri switched things up at half-time and the tide turned. The first half's missed chances came back to bite Roma and a clinical Giampaolo Pazzini stunned the raucous home support with a brace that came after Roma wasted more opportunities and had several penalty shouts turned down.

"No-one would have complained if that first half had finished 3-0," Ranieri said of the defeat in 2020. "We had three or four chances to win the match that we wasted. Then those two goals whipped our legs out from under us."

The Samp defeat left a deep mark on a talented team that afterwards sank into the doldrums. So traumatic was it for former Roma captain and recently dismissed coach Daniele De Rossi that he repeatedly said it was the one fixture from his 18 years at the club that he would like to play again.

"I'd make sure that I marked Pazzini man-to-man. That match was the game that could have given us the glory that team deserved," he said.

- Salt in the wound -

Roma's exhilarating run began in early November when they were 14 points off the top, and they only took the league lead in mid-April thanks in part to dramatic 2-1 wins over Juventus, local rivals Lazio and the then-stuttering Inter.

However the stinging defeat to Samp left Inter top by two points and the following week Lazio fans were quick to rub salt into the wound.

They raised an ironic "Oh nooo" banner as their team lost 2-0 to Inter, in a surreal, celebratory atmosphere in Rome after Lazio supporters had demanded their players let the Nerazzurri win.

With two wins for both teams ahead of the final round of matches, some 15,000 Roma fans made the trip to Chievo in the hope that Inter -- who needed to win to ensure the title -- might slip up at Siena, and at half-time their side were top thanks to strikes from Mirko Vucinic and De Rossi and a goalless first period in Tuscany.

However Diego Milito, who would cap a famous campaign with the goals that would hand Inter their third European Cup, struck just before the hour mark in Siena to end Ranieri's dreams of winning his boyhood club's fourth Scudetto.

The disappointment marked the end of a fierce battle between the two sides that had seen Roma finish second to Inter three of the previous four seasons, with Mourinho's ageing team creaking past their best after he left for Real Madrid.

Roma have been waiting since 2001 for a fourth Serie A title and Ranieri, who resigned the following February, would have to wait a few more years before he finally made history.

M.Delgado--TFWP