Perrotta leads Roma cruise
Serie A leaders earn comfortable win in Olympic Stadium
By Andy Clarke. Last Updated: September 19, 2007 10:30pm
Perrotta is congratulated by his Roma team-mates
Roma maintained their flying start to the season with a comprehensive 2-0 victory over Dynamo Kiev to open their Uefa Champions League campaign.
Goals from Simone Perrotta and Francesco Totti were sufficient to give the Italians the three points, although they could easily have scored more such was their superiority.
After winning their opening three Serie A games without conceding a goal, Roma were clear favourites to beat a team who are renowned as poor travellers in Europe.
Kiev have not won away from home in the Champions League since December 1998, although they were awarded a 3-0 win on this ground three years ago when the match was abandoned after referee Anders Frisk was struck by a coin.
Busy keeper
The Ukrainians lived up to their reputation, failing to test home keeper Doni until the closing stages, while at the other end Olexandr Shovkovskiy was kept busy for much of the evening.
He could do nothing to prevent Perrotta from opening the scoring in the ninth minute, the English-born midfielder flashing in a header at the near post from Max Tonetto's cross after a defence-splitting pass from Alberto Aquilani.
Defender Juan should have added a second, but drove his close range shot against the base of a post, before Totti failed to get a meaningful touch to Marco Cassetti's cross in front of goal.
Shovkovskiy did well to deny Mancini's angled shot from a quickly-taken corner shortly after the interval and he then reacted sharply to keep out substitute Ludovic Giuly's low shot.
However, the Kiev keeper was well beaten again in the 70th minute when Perrotta's precise pass released Totti and he had time to place a low shot into the bottom left corner.
And he was almost beaten against two minutes from time when Cassetti's shot bounced clear off the post.
| Roma | Team Statistics | Dinamo Kiev | |
| 2 | Goals | 0 | |
| 1 | 1st Half Goals | 0 | |
| 8 | Shots on Target | 2 | |
| 6 | Shots off Target | 3 | |
| 1 | Blocked Shots | 3 | |
| 6 | Corners | 5 | |
| 15 | Fouls | 21 | |
| 0 | Offsides | 2 | |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 | |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 | |
| 83.6 | Passing Success | 75.6 | |
| 23 | Tackles | 11 | |
| 73.9 | Tackles Success | 81.8 | |
| 56.5 | Possession | 43.5 | |
| 49.2 | Territorial Advantage | 50.8 | |
Matches
-
UEFA Champions League
Wed 19th Sep - Group F
Wed 19th Sep - Group H
Wed 19th Sep - Group G
Wed 19th Sep - Group E
Tables
UEFA Champions League Group A
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paris St Germain | 6 | 15 |
| 2 | FC Porto | 6 | 13 |
| 3 | Dynamo Kiev | 6 | 5 |
| 4 | Dinamo Zagreb | 6 | 1 |
UEFA Champions League Group B
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Schalke | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 6 | 10 |
| 3 | Olympiakos FC | 6 | 9 |
| 4 | Montpellier | 6 | 2 |
UEFA Champions League Group C
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Malaga | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | AC Milan | 6 | 8 |
| 3 | Zenit St. Petersburg | 6 | 7 |
| 4 | Anderlecht | 6 | 5 |
UEFA Champions League Group D
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Borussia Dortmund | 6 | 14 |
| 2 | Real Madrid | 6 | 11 |
| 3 | Ajax | 6 | 4 |
| 4 | Manchester City | 6 | 3 |
UEFA Champions League Group E
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juventus | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 6 | 10 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 6 | 10 |
| 4 | FC Nordsjaelland | 6 | 1 |
UEFA Champions League Group F
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 6 | 13 |
| 2 | Valencia | 6 | 13 |
| 3 | BATE Borisov | 6 | 6 |
| 4 | Lille | 6 | 3 |
UEFA Champions League Group G
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barcelona | 6 | 13 |
| 2 | Celtic | 6 | 10 |
| 3 | Benfica | 6 | 8 |
| 4 | Spartak Moscow | 6 | 3 |
UEFA Champions League Group H
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester United | 6 | 12 |
| 2 | Galatasaray | 6 | 10 |
| 3 | CFR Cluj-Napoca | 6 | 10 |
| 4 | Braga | 6 | 3 |
Simone Perrotta
Francesco Totti
