The club by the lake are far from universally popular but the Como manager’s clever tactics brought a key win over Roma
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or once the TV cameras at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia had not picked out a Hollywood A-lister in the stands but a celebrity of calcio instead. Gennaro Gattuso, the Italy manager, not to mention a World Cup and Champions League winner, had come to watch Como play Roma.
A crucial game in the race for Europe, the two teams having started the weekend level in fourth place. And still a slightly surprising one for Gattuso to pick. Not because it lacked the history and traditional importance of Lazio’s game against Milan later that evening, but because Como don’t have any Italian players for him to watch.
Only two are named in the first-team squad on the club’s website – the centre-back Edoardo Goldaniga and goalkeeper Mauro Vigorito, who have played one minute of Serie A football between them this season. If Gattuso chose to catch a game by the lake this weekend, it can only be because he wanted to check in on some of Roma’s players – Gianluca Mancini, Bryan Cristante, Lorenzo Pellegrini and perhaps the emerging talent of Niccolò Pisilli.
