When Lorenzo Pellegrini first wrapped the captain’s armband around his bicep, he probably didn’t expect that one of his leadership tasks would be to lend a teammate a pair of shorts so he could keep his dignity during a post-match interview.
Roma’s match-winner in Saturday’s Derby della Capitale, Gianluca Mancini, threw his ball in ecstasy shorts at the Curva Sud stand at the Olimpico as a souvenir for some (un)lucky ultras. “But I kept my shirt on,” he said. “I want to keep it forever.”
Adidas had released a special one for the 183rd Cupolone, a retro jersey teasingly promoted earlier in the week by the gaunt, lanky-haired whippet Marco Delvecchio, a revered nine-goal scorer in that turn-of-the-century rivalry with Lazio .
Men’s derby as he became known – The Derby Man – was used in the launch as the personification of 90s nostalgia. His highlights were shown on VHS while he took a call on a landline.
Mancini must have been on the other end of the line: “Do you have any advice, bomber?” In 10 appearances in the derby, he had never scored.
That’s why he kept his shirt on last night.
“I am the happiest man in the world,” Mancini said. These are words he borrowed from his coach Daniele De Rossi who said, on the eve of the match, that this was exactly how he felt after winning his first derby as a Roma player ago at twenty years old thanks to a famous backheel goal of Gianluca’s namesake, the Brazilian Amantino Mancini. “We haven’t won one for a while,” said Italian Mancini.
It’s been two years since they last beat Lazio. De Rossi’s predecessor Jose Mourinho lost four of the six derbies he oversaw and Roma’s owners, the American Friedkin family, decided to sack him after their city rivals knocked them out of the Coppa Italia at the start of the new year. “We had bad derbies,” admitted Mancini.
Mattia Zaccagni, absent on Saturday, then condemned them to defeat with the only goal, as he did this time last year in the championship. Mancini was sent off late in this cup match and did not calm down after the final whistle. Ever the exhibitionist, he jumped out of the locker room “totally naked” to confront his Lazio counterpart Alessio Romagnoli. “He didn’t even have a towel,” Lazio owner Claudio Lotito remarked in shock.
It was symbolic of the frequently observed outrageous and reckless streak that characterized Mourinho’s time at the club. And Mancini was, in many ways, his spokesperson, a man of execution who was not afraid to cross limits and go to extremes.
As such, the Roma jersey wasn’t the only throwback on Saturday night. They won a game via a corner, as often happened under Mourinho, and thanks to a header, their 12th of the season in Serie A, from a central defender.
Mancini went above and beyond, a trait that earned him Mourinho’s respect. At the start of the first half, he stuck out his tongue, a gesture that the DAZN reporter interpreted to mean he needed medication to play through the pain. De Rossi sent Dean Huijsen and Chris Smalling to warm up in case Mancini needed to come off.
But he stayed. Then he scores the only goal of the match just before halftime.
“I had a few problems, but you don’t go into a derby unless you break a leg,” Mancini said. “We suffer more when we sit on the bench.”
Romagnoli, his counterpart at the heart of Lazio’s defense, was replaced at half-time. A long-time Lazio fan who came through the ranks at Rome, his failure to come out of the interval evoked memories of his predecessor Alessandro Nesta remaining in the dressing room at 3-0 down in a 2002 derby.
Only this time, Roma didn’t run away with the match. There was not four baby foods — the four fingers that Francesco Totti waved at Igor Tudor 20 years ago to tell the score to the current Lazio coach, then to the Juventus defender.
It was 1-0 for longer than was comfortable.
Stephan El Shaarawy missed the kind of chance he took against Inter Milan in February in one of De Rossi’s first games in charge, hitting the post instead of the back of the net after Romelu Lukaku skillfully slipped it into goal. Lazio then saw a Daichi Kamada goal ruled out for offside and the remaining minutes began to feel like hours. “I asked the fourth official if the scoreboard was broken,” De Rossi joked.
Lazio’s winner against Juventus in Tudor’s opener last weekend came in stoppage time and was a carbon copy of the equalizer their goalkeeper Ivan Provedel scored against Atletico Madrid earlier in the season. His replacement Christos Mandas went up to imitate him last night, but in vain.
The “revenge” De Rossi sought for Roma’s recent history in this match was achieved. At the final whistle, he let out a roar and jumped into the arms of Valerio Cardini, the Roma team manager.
He tried as best he could not to go to the South, as he did when he was a player. De Rossi did so after the Europa League penalty shootout victory over Feyenoord in February and admitted feeling “a bit ashamed” to let go. But it was a moment to cherish, a third act. De Rossi experienced this meeting as a player, standing in the South disguised in 2020 and “it’s just as good” to win it as a coach, he said. It was a special day.
In front of the Tribuna Tevere stand dugouts, supporters unveiled a tribute depicting Roma legend Agostino Di Bartolomei. De Rossi named his son Noah, but thought long and hard about the idea of naming his boy Ago. A Roman like De Rossi. A captain like De Rossi would have celebrated Di Bartolomei’s 59th birthday on Monday if he hadn’t committed suicide on the 10th anniversary of Roma’s defeat to Liverpool at the Olimpico in the European Cup final 1984.
To De Rossi’s right, the South unfurled a banner reading: “My only wife, my only love.” These are the same words that De Rossi had sewn onto the armband he wore when he was captain of their team.
Roma played in his image on Saturday. They looked like the famous tattoo on his calf – a road sign showing a stick figure embarking on a sliding challenge. Pellegrini received a warning after eliminating Matteo Guendouzi and Felipe Anderson in the same action. Leandro Paredes and Angelino put their bodies on the line. Paulo Dybala returned to his own signature and blocked the crosses.
Dybala appeared to be undergoing the same transformation that his compatriot Lionel Messi experienced when Argentina faced the Netherlands in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup.
Instead of listening to the manager of the other team or saying: What are you looking at, Bobo! to an opponent, as Messi did that evening, he took out his shin guard for Guendouzi and showed him the photo printed on it. The Frenchman, who warmed the bench in that World Cup final penalty shootout defeat 15 months ago, was confronted with an image of Dybala holding the trophy aloft and planting a kiss on his golden surface.
After the match, Mancini spoke with honor about the importance of showing respect to your opponents.
Barely had he finished this interview when he found himself in the South, asking for a flag in the colors of Lazio and with the silhouette of a rat on it. He then proceeded to run up and down a section of the Olimpico athletics track, shaking it.
Some will wonder how different this behavior is from the free-for-all of the Mourinho era. But Roma now comes to play as well as fight.
Tudor then noticed their physique and the number of second balls they won. But he also highlighted how “it was difficult to put pressure on them, because the football they play avoids it”.
As a former teammate and midfielder who played in Argentina for Boca Juniors at the end of his career, De Rossi understands Paredes’ game better than Mourinho. He found a way for Pellegrini and Dybala to operate on the same team. Then there’s the left side, where Angelino has proven himself and El Shaarawy is playing his best football in a long time. It seems most people have failed to understand that Roma are the team Luciano Spalletti is relying on as much as Inter for his Italy team as they prepare to defend their European Championship this summer.
“I can coach good players, and from time to time they cover up my mistakes,” De Rossi humbly said.
Ahead of Saturday’s match, Roma exceeded their expected goals (xG) total by a high of 13.6 thanks in part to the worlds of Pellegrini and Dybala. They have been awarded five penalties in De Rossi’s three months at the helm and last weekend, during a 0-0 away draw against Lecce, he drew comparisons to Mourinho for some slight complaints according to which they had not obtained another.
Some of Roma’s clean sheets – at Frosinone, at home to Brighton in Europe – have, by his own admission, also been lucky. But the team is on a good run and that is partly because De Rossi has a very positive influence. He talks this team up rather than down. With the exception of Lukaku – two goals in Serie A in 2024 – he has unleashed his attacking potential and now Tammy Abraham is back after 10 months out with a knee injury, there is potentially even more to come.
Ninth when De Rossi received the call from Friedkins in January, Roma now occupy fifth and final place in the Champions League. From 17 points ahead of Juventus in January, the gap has fallen to four, reflecting the rise of one team and the fall of another.
Nicknamed Capitan Futuro as a player, De Rossi was renamed Mister Futuro. “I am Mr. Present,” declared Roma’s interim manager, the coach of the moment, diplomatically. “I don’t think about the future.” Only about the Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday against AC Milan.
De Rossi does not take the lead. He wants to enjoy the moment. “Every now and then you have to stop, sit on the sofa, have a beer and some chips.”
For the rest of the weekend, it will be Lazio who will taste salt and vinegar.
(Top photo: Silvia Lore/Getty Images)