Former captain Pellegrini recalled and nets winner
Incoming storms see Ligue 1’s Le Classique called off
Stripped of the captaincy. His contract nearing expiration without a renewal proposal. After zero minutes played in the opening three matches, nothing seemed to be going Lorenzo Pellegrini’s way. Until the Rome derby. The Roman-born midfielder cast aside all the issues surrounding him and scored the decisive goal for Roma in a 1-0 win over Lazio in Serie A on Sunday.
“Aside from all the reasoning and words, there is one constant, which is that I love Roma,” said Pellegrini, who joined the club aged nine. “As long as I wear this shirt, there won’t be a moment where I will hold back. Life is unpredictable, you don’t know what could happen next. I seemed on the verge of leaving and then got hurt. But today I started and scored to win the derby.”
After being derided by Gian Piero Gasperini a day earlier when Roma’s new coach said that, at 29, Pellegrini has “got to become an athlete and start running,” the midfielder was perfectly positioned to strike when the chance came his way in the 38th minute. Devyne Rensch did well to strip the ball from Lazio’s left-back Nuno Tavares and rolled it across to the former-captain, stationed in the centre of the area, to fire home, prompting Roma’s end of the Stadio Olimpico to erupt with smoke bombs.
