Roma 2-3 Manchester Utd: Second half fightback not enough as Giallorossi fall in Denver

Date: 27th July 2014 at 12:38am
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Manchester United defeated Roma 3-2 at Sports Authority Field in Denver on Saturday night in the International Champions Cup.

Two first half goals from Wayne Rooney and another from Juan Mata were enough for United with Miralem Pjanic and a Francesco Totti penalty reducing the deficit for the capital club in the second half.

Roma dominated possession early on and could easily have been ahead within the first minute when a ball over the top from Salih Ucan found Mattia Destro, who took the ball down brilliantly but chipped his effort just over the bar.

United’s defence looked vulnerable to passes over the top towards the Italian striker and it created another chance only minutes later.

Destro was found again but was tackled by Reece James before the ball fell to Alessandro Florenzi, however his shot was straight at Sam Johnstone who easily dealt with the effort.

Despite the Giallorossi’s chances it was United that took the lead in the 36th minute through Rooney, who created space for himself following a pass from Mata and from 20 yards out fired the ball into the top corner to make it 1-0 for the Premier League side.

United doubled their lead three minutes later when a brilliant over the top ball from Rooney from his own half found Mata, who took the ball down and guided the ball over the onrushing Lukasz Skorupski.

The game looked to be over as a contest just before half when Danny Welbeck was brought down in the box for a penalty before Rooney sent Skorupski the wrong way to give United a commanding 3-0 lead.

After a flurry of changes for United, the second half began in similar vain to the first as Destro fired into the side netting from a tight angle after a cutback from Florenzi.

In the 53rd minute some great trickery from Adem Ljajic saw him beat Tom Cleverley and pull the ball back to Florenzi, who smashed the ball wide from inside the penalty area.

United started to take control of possession as the half wore on but with 15 minutes to go Roma got one back through a fantastic goal from Pjanic.

Seeing Amos off his line, the Bosnian fantastically lobbed the goalkeeper from 50 yards out and into the back to make it 3-1.

Roma were close to getting another back in the 83rd minute when an acrobatic attempt from Leandro Castan was tipped onto the post by Ben Amos.

The closing stages were made very interesting when Michael Keane handballed in the box and Totti smashed the resulting penalty home in the 88th minute to make it 3-2.

However it wasn’t to be for the Giallorossi as they fell by a final scoreline of 3-1. They will now look prepare to square off against reigning Champions League winners Real Madrid in Dallas on Wednesday.

 

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