Roma 0-0 Milan: Stalemate As Rossoneri Waste A Host Of Chances

It's advantage Inter in the Serie A title race as honours were even between chasers Roma and Milan. The Rossoneri had the better of the contest and should have converted at least one of their good chances while Claudio Ranieri's side will be glad to escape with a point after a poor display at home.

After his heroics from the bench this season Klaas Jan Huntelaar started up
front for the Rossoneri as they sought to close the gap on rivals Inter to a
single point with a win. Claudio Ranieri played it safe and left Luca Toni on
the bench as the on loan striker continued his comeback from a recent injury.

Mathieu Flamini was a bundle of energy in the opening 45 minutes and made his intent clear from the outset as he slalomed into Simone Perrotta
with a tough challenge moments after kick-off. The Giallorossi almost had a dream start a couple of minutes later when Daniele De Rossi showed quick feet to dance his way into the penalty area evading the challenge of Alessandro Nesta but spoiled his good work by curling his effort wide.

Roma bossed the early exchanges and went close again through Julio Baptista who rasped the gloves of Christian Abbiati with a powerful long range drive which the shot-stopper palmed over the bar. The visitors gradually came into the game and grew increasingly dominant as it wore on as Ronaldinho started to show more of an influence.

The Brazilian ace showed some wonderful skill to find some space and set up
Marco Borriello for a clean strike at goal but the forward whacked a wayward
drive wide of the goal from barely 12 yards out. Ronaldinho was involved again
in a three man move involving Borriello and Andrea Pirlo as the cultured
midfielder whipped in an accurate cross which just missed the onrushing
Huntelaar.

Ranieri's outfit were content to let Milan hog the possession and when they did
break into the opposition half all to often their final ball was lacking. It was
a surprise that the Tinkerman didn't make any changes for the second half as
Leonardo's team started the second 45 minutes in the same vein as they ended the first.

Once again Ronaldinho was the hub of operations chipping in a fabulous ball for Borriello which the striker got a slight touch on before Julio Sergio threw
himself to ground to make a close range stop. The combative Flamini went close after John Arne Riise hesitated on clearing a cross but the Frenchman fired wide before Borriello missed a sitter ten minutes in when he was one-on-one with the keeper from close range but inexplicably sent his tame drive straight at Julio Sergio.

With the home crowd getting agitated Ranieri made the swap withdrawing Baptista for Luca Toni to support Mirko Vucinic up. The ex-Fiorentina man was quickly involved inviting Thiago Silva into a challenge from 20m out to earn his side a free-kick which Riise smashed into the wall before it bounced into the grateful arms of Abbiati.

It was all Milan as the Romans looked ragged at the back with Riise in
particular enduring a difficult evening. The Norwegian was caught ball watching
as Julio Sergio rushed out of his goal to deny Huntelaar who tried a cheeky chip which was just beaten away by the alert keeper.

Leonardo introduced David Beckham for the final 20 minutes but the Englishman was a spectator as Vucinic squeezed a header just shy of the goal after a rare Roma break forward. David Pizarro, who saw little of the ball all evening, whistled a strike wide of Abbiati's goal as the hosts looked to grab an unlikely winner as the game entered the latter stages.

Beckham did what was asked of him to whizz in a trademark cross which Ronaldinho should have done better from instead of angling his header downwards and wide inside the danger area. The former World Player of the year blazed a free-kick wide from a good position on the edge of the box while Huntelaar wasted a great headed opportunity in the dying seconds from close range as the match drifted towards its inevitable stalemate conclusion. Riise nearly stole an undeserved winner with a bullet strike right at the death prompting an instinctive stop from Abbiati as the match finished scoreless.