A crowd of 80,706 crammed into Melbourne Cricket Ground to see Roma defeat Real Madrid 7-6 on penalties in their opening International Champions Cup Australia match, after the 90 minutes finished goalless.
Despite not being able to find the net in regular time, Rudi Garcia’s men served up a decent display and went close to scoring several times, most notably when Daniele De Rossi struck the crossbar in the first half.
Morgan De Sanctis was the spot-kick hero as he turned away Lucas Vazquez’s effort from 12 yards before Seydou Keita stepped up to fire home the winning penalty.
Gervinho was named man of the match after dazzling with a series of trademark bursts during the game.
The shootout victory means the Giallorossi put their first two points on the board in the International Champions Cup Australia and can now look forward to the decisive match against Manchester City on Tuesday July 21 at 20:00 local time (12:00 CEST, 6:00 EDT), before heading to Jakarta for AS Roma Indonesia Day on July 25.
