Comments on: Fabio Cannavaro vs. Francesco Totti: Italians Face Off at the Bernabéu (Real Madrid vs. Roma UEFA Champions League Preview)

By: Hugo Steckelmacher

Hugo Steckelmacher — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:15:52 +0000

Haha, Marco, you can be sure that the irony didn’t escape me dreaded “commentator’s curse” has been extended to blogs. You know the one where the commentator says “he’s hardly misplaced a pass all night”, at which point the player in question proceeds to get an elaborate pass horribly wrong.

That said, tellingly it was not until Pepe was sent off that Real actually conceded a goal. Of course, that can be read in many lights.

By: Marco Pantanella

Marco Pantanella — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:43:24 +0000

I chose the iconic Italians for this one, Gonzalo.

Hugo, I have to agree that Cannavaro’s reliability at Real hasn’t been close to his levels of the 2006 World Cup or the two seasons before that at Juve. But I attribute that factor partly to Real Madrid’s playing style and Cannavaro’s partners in defense. Pepe may be a rock, but the other members of the Merengues’s back 4 don’t exactly reach the level of a Lilian Thuram, a Gianluca Zambrotta, or a Marco Materazzi.

P.S. Your boy Pepe got sent off tonight… ironic ain’t it?

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:41:14 +0000

I’ve always heard so much hype about Totti and he has always had incredible stats on Football Manager lol. On a serious note though, I haven’t seen that much of Roma ever to be honest and I know Vucinic has wrapped up the win for them tonight, but I can’t ever remember Totti producing the goods in a major tournament for his club or country.

By: Hugo Steckelmacher

Hugo Steckelmacher — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:18:41 +0000

I really enjoyed this article, Marco. However, I’d have to disagree with the idea that Cannavaro is now the linchpin of the Real defence. In my view, he continues to be somewhat a liability, and almost reminds me of Hierro in the great captain’s last couple of years. It is Pepe who is the rock around which Real can build success, and only if Pepe plays do I feel that Cannavaro can be relied upon.

By: Felipe

Felipe — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:03:27 +0000

Totti i would have to say is better, cannavaro is one of the best defeders in the world but one guy cant stop 4 people from scoring, real has good forwards like robinho and ruud, at the end of the day ill pick totti over cannavaro even thou im a die hard real madrid fan, you just cannot deny his skill, like he said “you talk about roma, your talking bout totti”

By: Gonzalo

Gonzalo — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:56:10 +0000

Interesting profile of these two experienced European battlers, but one would expect that Roma will put more emphasis in defence at the start and Real in attack, so maybe you should have also profiled RaÃºl and Panucci, who played together under Capello over 10 years ago…