When a point is good but not good enough
Dino Panato/Getty ImagesRoma's Erik Lamela celebrates his first half goal with teammates during their 1-1 draw at Udinese.Aurelio Andreazzoli has earned his first draw as a Roma manager, and depending on how one looks at it, the result is disappointing, a relief, or fair. In the larger picture of a Serie A season, an away point at the Fruili is certainly a very good result: Only Juventus have beaten Francesco Guidolin's men on their own turf this season, and that was on matchday two. They feature one of the tightest home defenses in the league, having allowed merely twelve goals all year (subtracting the four Antonio Conte's men put past them, that's seriously impressive). Certainly, continuing an unbeaten run without Marquinhos, Miralem Pjanic, and Leandro Castan in his first start back from injury is a positive as well.
From another standpoint, however, it was a missed opportunity. Due to no fault of Andreazzoli, every game of Roma's now is really a must-win to hope for a European spot next season. Zdenek Zeman dug a hole so deep in the early part of this second half of the season that only consistent wins can drag the side out of it. And a win was certainly possible today. Roma, after struggling in the first ten minutes, enjoyed a very good first half where Alessandro Florenzi could have had a brace himself. Erik Lamela pounced on a scrappy save of his diving header in the 20th to give Roma the lead and earn his 12th goal of the season and his third against Udinese this year.
- Match report: Udinese 1-1 Roma
From then on, the away side failed to add to their tally despite playing very well until the break. During a tougher second half, Udinese began to take the initiative and eventually scored after Luis Muriel dribbled past two defenders near the byline of the box and slipped the ball between Maarten Stekelenburg's legs. It was, in essence, a very Roma goal to concede.
The last part of the match was dominated by the referee, who denied penalty shouts to both sides, sent off Thomas Heurtaux for a tackle on Florenzi, and booked three players for diving in the box. Pablo Osvaldo missed the game winner in injury time after receiving a fantastic pass and prodding the ball wide with just Zeljko Brkic to beat.
So it goes.
The overall fallout is that Roma are on 44 points in seventh place, seven behind Milan in third. A Champions League spot is probably out of reach now, realistically speaking, with Inter, Lazio and Fiorentina all sandwiched between the two sides. If that seems a bit unfair, it truly is. Roma have gone on their second best streak of the season in recent weeks only to be undone by Massimiliano Allegri's side finally waking up and rising meteorically up the table. Lazio, Inter, and Fiorentina have all slipped up recently as well, but Francesco Totti's men had just too big a gap to make up.
With ten games left in the season and thirty points still to play for, anything is possible, no matter how cliched that sounds (Roma still have the Derby against Lazio, away matches against Napoli and Inter, and a home game against Milan to make up vital ground). What's important for Roma is to continue gaining points every match day for Andreazzoli to demonstrate he deserves to lead the side next season, and to hope to sneak into the European places. The bridge to continental play may be slipping over the horizon, but it remains just visible in the sunset of the Serie A season.
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