During the 2007–08 season Associazione Sportiva Roma played the 75th Serie A season in its history.
As in the previous season, Roma finished in second place in Serie A behind Internazionale, but had the chance to win the Championship until the last match.
Further, because giallorossi won the 2006–07 Coppa Italia, they played the Supercoppa Italiana for the second consecutive time against Inter, and won the trophy thanks to a 1–0 victory in the first match of the season in San Siro.
In the European competitions, Roma played 2007–08 UEFA Champions League and, starting from the group stage, beat Real Madrid in the Round of 16, but lost to the eventual champions Manchester United in the quarter-finals.
The last match of the season was the 2007–08 Coppa Italia final against Internazionale, the fourth consecutive final between the two teams. The giallorossi won 2–1, their ninth Coppa Italia triumph.
Season review
Pre-season & transfers Early pre-season was dominated by the protracted talks involving the renewal of Cristian Chivu's contractChivu negociaza noul contract cu AS Roma and the many rumours that linked him to many other teams. In fact, the Romanian defender refused a new contract because he already knew he had an offer of about €4M from Internazionale.Chivu niente rinnovo! For this reason in early June Roma extended Philippe Mexès' contract until 2011PROLUNGATO IL CONTRATTO PER LE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEL CALCIATORE PHILIPPE MEXES and signed Brazilian 2007 Copa América winning defender Juan from Bayer Leverkusen.
The speculation involving Chivu lasted almost two months, and after that he refused to extend his contract with Roma. The player also turned down offers from Barcelona and Real Madrid,Chivu: Il Real Madrid si può rifiutare stating that if he was not transferred to Inter he would keep playing for Roma until his contract ran out the summer of 2008.Chivu: "O vado all'Inter o rimango alla Roma" For this reason Roma's supporters saw him as a "traitor" and whistled him during a training session in Stadio Flaminio;Spalletti: Dispiaciuto per fischi a Chivu even Roma's director of football Daniele Pradé stated that the Romanian defender made "incalculable damage" to the club because Real Madrid's offer was higher than the others.Chivu resta alla Roma e Pradè si infuria Eventually, on 27 July, when it seemed that Chivu would have been a giallorosso until the end of his contract period, Inter made a final offer of 14M€ plus the co-ownership of Marco Andreolli.
Roma also signed Ludovic Giuly, Mauro Esposito and, at the end of August, Cicinho. The loans of Christian Wilhelmsson and Francesco Tavano were not renewed, while Vincenzo Montella was loaned to Sampdoria as he wanted more first-team football. However, Roma bought full ownership of David Pizarro, Mirko Vučinić and Marco Cassetti.
The signings of Matteo Brighi, Ahmed Barusso, and Vitorino Antunes further enlarged the squad, while young players such as Aleandro Rosi, Ricardo Faty, Stefano Okaka, Valerio Virga, Alessio Cerci, Andrea Giacomini and Daniele Galloppa were loaned to lower league clubs to gain experience.OPERAZIONI DI TRASFERIMENTO DEI DIRITTI ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI CERCI ALESSIO E RICARDO FATYOPERAZIONI DI TRASFERIMENTO DEI DIRITTI ALLE PRESTAZIONI SPORTIVE DEI CALCIATORI GALASSO, GALLOPPA, GIACOMINI, MAGLIOCHETTI E PALERMO
First part of the season Roma began the 2007–08 season on 19 August 2007 with the Supercoppa Italiana in San Siro against Internazionale. In the previous season, Roma had lost the Supercoppa 4–3, but on this occasion succeeded in winning (by 1–0) the second Supercoppa in its history, thanks to a penalty by Daniele De Rossi after a foul by Nicolás Burdisso on Francesco Totti.
The 2007–08 Serie A began with Roma as one of the favourites, after Internazionale, Milan and together with Juventus.Questa Roma è da scudetto, c'è da scommetterci...
The first matches confirmed pre-season expectations of a successful campaign, as Roma started well with a 2–0 win against Palermo with goals from Philippe Mexès and Alberto Aquilani, who also scored in the second match against Siena.
Roma qualified for the 2007–08 UEFA Champions League after finishing second in the 2006–07 season, qualifying directly to the group stage, where they were drawn from the second pot into Group F, together with Manchester United, Sporting CP and Dynamo Kyiv.
After the pause for Italy's Euro 2008 qualifying matches against France and Ukraine, in which Daniele De Rossi, Simone Perrotta, Christian Panucci and Alberto Aquilani played, Roma entered a difficult period of fixtures over a short span of time: from 16 September until 3 October, the giallorossi played against Reggina (winning 2–0), Dynamo Kyiv (winning 2–0), Juventus (drawing 2–2), Fiorentina (drawing 2–2), Internazionale (losing 4–1) and Manchester United (losing 1–0).
Roma won 2–0 in the first match against the Calabrese team thanks to Juan's first goal, a volley with his heel, and the second goal by Francesco Totti, who also scored in the 2–0 victory against Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv. In the following two games against Juventus and Fiorentina, Roma led 2–1 but failed to hold on for the win, conceding the equalizer in the last minutes of both games.
After having played Juventus on Sunday and Fiorentina on Wednesday, Roma faced champions Inter on Saturday, 29 September. The giallorossi lost 4–1, but the defeat was abetted by a handball in the penalty area from Ludovic Giuly who was sent off and cost Roma a penalty, after which the numerical inferiority and the disadvantage opened the nerazzurri'''s overwhelming victory.L'Inter travolge la Roma all'Olimpico -
After losing their position as Serie A league leaders, Roma had to face Manchester United for the first time since their débâcle the previous season at the hands of the English champions in the quarter-finals where they had lost 7–1 . Roma lost this time too, but missed many chances,Il rammarico di Spalletti "Troppe palle-gol mancate" and even the scorer game's only goal, Wayne Rooney, stated that "Roma deserved more".Rooney ammette: "La Roma meritava il pareggio" In addition to ending the first match of the season without scoring a goal, the giallorossi lost Alberto Aquilani to a groin injuryRoma stavolta a testa alta, ma rivince il Manchester that would keep him out of play for more than a month,Aquilani, almeno un mese di stop preventing him from playing the derby.
Roma won their next match 3–0 against Parma, thanks to two goals by Francesco Totti and one by Mancini, thus leaving behind a poor run of two draws and two defeats before the break for the Euro 2008 qualifying matches. After the international break Roma played out a thrilling 4–4 draw against Napoli.
In the third Champions League group stage match, Roma had to face Sporting CP and, though Totti was injured, the team won thanks to goals by Juan and Mirko Vučinić, who dribbled two Portuguese defenders before scoring and assuring Roma second place in Group F, after three matches. The Montenegrin captain was also the protagonist of the second consecutive victory in San Siro against Milan, scoring the only goal of the game.Vucinic affonda il Milan
On 31 October 2007 the giallorossi played the Derby della Capitale against Lazio without three important first team players (Totti, Alberto Aquilani and Rodrigo Taddei), all out with injury. Despite this, Roma won 3–2 thanks to the third goal in three matches from Mirko Vučinić (evening the score after a goal from Lazio's Tommaso Rocchi), the second goal of the league campaign for Mancini and the winning goal by Simone Perrotta.La Roma si riprende il derby
Players
Squad informationLast updated on 18 May 2008Appearances include league matches only'' No. Name Nat Position(s) Date of birth (Age at end of season) Signed from Signed in Apps. Goals Goalkeepers 1 Gianluca Curci GK Youth Sector 2004 29 0 25 Carlo Zotti GK Palermo 2001 14 0 27 Júlio Sérgio GK América 2006 0 0 32 Doni GK Juventude 2005 97 0 Defenders 2 Christian Panucci (Vice-Captain) RB / CB Monaco 2001 207 17 3 Cicinho RB Real Madrid 2007 30 2 4 Juan CB Bayer Leverkusen 2007 22 2 5 Philippe Mexès CB Auxerre 2004 113 7 13 Marco Andreolli CB Internazionale 2007 0 0 15 Vitorino Antunes LB Paços de Ferreira 2007 5 0 21 Matteo Ferrari CB Parma 2004 78 2 22 Max Tonetto LB Sampdoria 2006 65 1 77 Marco Cassetti RB Lecce 2006 55 2 Midfielders 7 David Pizarro CM / DM Internazionale 2006 63 4 8 Alberto Aquilani CM / AM Youth Sector 2002 88 7 11 Rodrigo Taddei LM / RM / AM Siena 2005 93 19 14 Ludovic Giuly RW / AM Barcelona 2007 32 6 16 Daniele De Rossi DM / CM Youth Sector 2001 155 17 20 Simone Perrotta LM / CM / AM Chievo 2004 128 21 30 Mancini LW / RW / AM Venezia 2003 154 40 33 Matteo Brighi CM Juventus 2004 24 1 Forwards 9 Mirko Vučinić CF / ST Lecce 2006 58 11 10 Francesco Totti (Captain) AM / LW / SS / CF / ST Youth Sector 1992 395 165 18 Mauro Esposito RW Cagliari 2007 8 0 36 Claudio Della Penna RW / LW Youth Sector 2007 0 0 Players transferred during the season 17 Édgar Álvarez RM Peñarol 2005 21 0 28 Aleandro Rosi RB Youth Sector 2004 37 2 29 Ahmed Barusso CM Rimini 2007 3 0 31 Samuel Kuffour CB Bayern Munich 2005 21 0
Transfers
In
Out Arriva Magliocchetti
Competitions
Overall Competition Started round Final position First match Last match Serie A Matchday 1Runners-up 26 August 2007 18 May 2008 Supercoppa Italiana FinalWinners 19 August 2007 Coppa Italia Round of 16 Winners 19 December 2007 24 May 2008 Champions League Group stage Quarter-finals 19 September 2007 9 April 2008
Last updated: 24 May 2008
Supercoppa Italiana
Serie A
League table
Results summary
Results by round
Matches
Coppa Italia
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
UEFA Champions League
Group stage
Knockout phase
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Statistics
Appearances and goals
! colspan=14 style="background:#B21B1C; color:#FFD700; text-align:center"| Players transferred out during the season
Goalscorers NameSerie ASupercoppaCoppa ItaliaUEFA CLTotal110FWFrancesco Totti140311829FWMirko Vučinić901414330MFMancini803213414MFLudovic Giuly60118511MFRodrigo Taddei6001720MFSimone Perrotta5011772DFChristian Panucci5001616MFDaniele De Rossi5100697MFDavid Pizarro300148MFAlberto Aquilani30104114DFJuan20013123DFCicinho200025DFPhilippe Mexès101021422DFMax Tonetto1000133MFMatteo Brighi1000177DFMarco Cassetti00011Own goal10012Totals721111599
Last updated: 24 May 2008
Clean sheets NameSerie ASupercoppaCoppa ItaliaUEFA CLTotal132GKDoni161111921GKGianluca Curci00202Totals1613121
Last updated: 24 May 2008
References