Coppa Italia, Roma-Cremonese 1-2, Grigiorossi in the semifinal – Corriere.it

The Giallorossi family, as Mou calls it, is not well. But not all Zaniolo’s fault. Exit dazed by the market, Roma also comes out of the Italian Cup and sparks the party of Cremonese, the only one among the 20 Serie A teams that has not yet won a match in the league, but which flies to the semifinals of the Cup. The double-faced Grigiorossi doubled the miracle: after that of Napoli they took the scalp of Roma. In April they could be close to relegation, but they will face Fiorentina in the double semi-final, difficult but not impossible at this point.

Ballardini’s work can be seen: the team is less carefree than the one that played good football with Alviti but much more organised. He made a turnover – the goalkeeper Carnesecchi was out and the striker Okereke in the first half – but his substitutions were much more productive than those of Mou, who left Dybala, Abraham and Smalling on the bench and then let them come on in the second half. A duck from Kumbulla and an own goal from Celik decided. In short, Rome continues to hurt itself.

Cremonese played an orderly match, with a few too many losses of time borne by the referee Fabbri, and deserved to go ahead for the courage shown. Between first and second, while Mou also changed the form by switching to the 4-man defence, Ballardini put in the starters to give the signal to the team: it can be done. Said of who was there, below with who wasn’t there. Cio Nicol Zaniolo, who tried to make the first move after the plates in the face of the past few days: The future is in our hands: I hold mine and place myself at the complete disposal of the Roma family, he dictated to Ansa.

Nicol recalled the Conference League final – on 25 May that seems to have happened a century ago – decided by him: In Tirana, with that goal, I felt I had paid back everything I had received, helping to give unforgettable joy to all Romanists. Then guaranteed a seriousness that has certainly been lost in recent times: I went through a delicate period, in which it was difficult to understand my professional future. I was forever committed on the field and in training. For the first time in these days I have been afraid, for myself and for my family, and I felt abandoned. It had never happened to me before and I was very scared.

His case was taken as a negative example by the Footballers’ Association: What happened to Zaniolo is the tip of an iceberg made up of unacceptable episodes that, too often, involve footballers, their private lives and their families – said the president Umberto Calcagno —. Transfer market results or issues are part of the profession and can never be an excuse for intimidation, violence and threats that are no longer tolerable. Tomorrow Zaniolo will not train, with a medical certificate, on Friday he will have a psycho-physical examination and then he will train separately, away from the team. Now he must first win back Mourinho and then the Roma fans who raised this banner yesterday in the Curva Sud: For us, wearing that shirt means honoring it, for us, kissing that shirt means not betraying it. The same fans who, in the 90th minute, booed all the others.