totti clinches top spot for roma published: wednesday 10 december 2008, 0.50cet
as roma 2-0 fc girondins de bordeaux
second-half goals from matteo brighi then francesco totti ensured roma's passage as group a winners and consigned bordeaux to the uefa cup.
by richard allen from stadio olimpico
as roma topped group a after comfortably defeating a disappointing fc girondins de bordeaux 2-0 at the stadio olimpico. second half goals from matteo brighi and captain francesco totti were enough to send luciano spalletti's men into the knockout stages for a third successive season and consign bordeaux to the uefa cup.
totti strikes after a scrappy beginning the home side dominated proceedings and went ahead through brighi just after the hour mark. needing all three points to progress, an ultra-conservative bordeaux only really threatened at the start of the second half and their hopes faded when totti added the second eleven minutes from time. bordeaux must now look forward to the uefa cup, while roma rub shoulders with the first-placed teams in the first knockout round draw on 19 december.
hungry beast with all to play for on a bitterly cold night in rome, it was the home side who had the first chances. júlio baptista forced the returning ulrich ramé into early action low to his left. 'the beast', who scored a brilliant free-kick in roma's 3-1 win in bordeaux, this time bent a 20-metre effort just over after ten minutes as the giallorossi appeared happy to play on the break. jérémy menez, replacing the injured mirko vučinić, was twisting and turning to good effect up front but it was the in-form brazilian who was offering the main threat. in the 18th minute, he let fly from long distance but his dipping effort would just not come down quickly enough.
wayward shots despite needing the win to qualify, laurent blanc had said his team would not be taking any risks early on. even so, the french side were offering precious little for their travelling support. their sole attempts in the opening half an hour were a couple of wayward 35-metre drives from brazilian midfielders fernando and wendel. playmaker yoann gourcuff was running around busily, but could not make a significant impact as daniele de rossi and brighi commanded the central area.
last-ditch tackle after the cat-and-mouse beginning the game began to liven up in the second half. bordeaux suddenly began to attack in numbers and following a tricky run down the left from franck jurietti, marouane chamakh had doni scrambling at his near post. gourcuff then had two chances in as many minutes. first, on 52 minutes, he shot disappointingly wide following a mistake from simone perrotta. then, through on goal after taking a long ball down delightfully on his chest, he was thwarted by a last-ditch tackle from philippe mexès.
brighi scores just as the french team appeared to be directing things, though, roma pounced on 61 minutes. with an exquisitely disguised pass, baptista slipped in perrotta down the right. the italian international drove to the byline before crossing for brighi, all alone six metres out, to control, swivel and volley the ball home in one movement.
unerring finish bordeaux pushed forward and gourcuff again had a sight of goal on 77 minutes but his right-foot effort was comfortably saved by doni. at the other end menez, full of running, slipped in totti who supplied an unerring finish with the outside of his right foot, doubling the home side's lead and effectively extinguishing bordeaux's hopes. blanc threw on substitutes fernando cavenaghi and david bellion and although they combined for the latter to fire over, it was too little too late.
