Homegrown Pellegrini scores derby winner after being stripped of Roma's captaincy

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ROME (AP) — Stripped of the captaincy. His contract nearing expiration without a renewal proposal. No minutes played in the opening three matches.

Nothing seemed to be going Lorenzo Pellegrini’s way. Until the Rome derby.

The Roman-born Pellegrini 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 at age 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,” Pellegrini added. “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 from the center of the area after Dwayne Rensch had stripped the ball from Lazio left back Nuno Tavares and rolled it across to the ex-captain.

Pellegrini, who is also trying to regain his spot in Italy’s squad, celebrated with a kiss toward the Curva Sud where Roma’s hard-core “ultra” fans sit.

Moments before the goal, a banner popped up in the Curva Sud that said, “Welcome back, captain.”

After the goal, Roma’s end of the Stadio Olimpico erupted with yellow-and-red smoke bombs.

It was Pellegrini’s fourth career goal in the Derby della Capitale — but his first since January in any competition.

Before the season, Gasperini gave the captain's armband to Stephan El Shaarawy based on seniority.

Pellegrini got the start with Paulo Dybala out injured.

The derby was moved to a lunchtime start to discourage fan violence after 24 police officers were injured during clashes likened to " urban warfare ” at the previous derby, which was played at night in April.

With the game starting at 12:30 p.m. local time, the temperature inside the Stadio Olimpico rose above 30 degrees (nearly 90 F), requiring cooling breaks for the teams midway through each half.

Lazio coach Maurizio Sarri said on Saturday that moving the game into the heat of the day because authorities couldn’t guarantee public order for a later start was “a loss for soccer.”

The earlier start was designed to give hooligans less time to create problems and indeed there wasn't much in the way of disorder reported immediately.

Although police outside the stadium confiscated wooden and plastic clubs with blades and screws attached to them.

Lazio created more chances early on but couldn’t quite find the target.

Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar leaped to palm a shot from Lazio captain Mattia Zaccagni over the crossbar midway through the first half.

In the second half, Lazio striker Boulaye Dia wasted a counterattack that saw him sprint toward a one-on-one confrontation with Svilar and then blast his effort over the bar.

And Taty Castellanos curled a shot just wide in the 76th as Lazio pressed forward desperate for an equalizer.

Lazio ended with 10 men when Reda Belahyane was shown a straight red card for a foul on Manu Kone in the 88th.

Still, Lazio kept on threatening and Danilo Cataldi hit the post in stoppage time.

Lazio’s Matteo Guendouzi was also shown a red card for dissent after the final whistle.

Roma has now won three of the last four derbies without conceding a goal, with the teams drawing 1-1 in their previous meeting.

Roma has also won three of its four opening matches under Gasperini, who replaced the retiring Claudio Ranieri after nine high-scoring seasons at Atalanta.

The Giallorossi moved up to fourth place, level on points with AC Milan and defending champion Napoli and one point behind leader Juventus, which was held 1-1 at Hella Verona on Saturday.

Napoli can extend its perfect start against promoted Pisa on Monday.

Later, Inter Milan was hosting Sassuolo, Atalanta was visiting Torino, and Fiorentina was playing Como.

Lazio has now lost three of four since Sarri was rehired.

The colorful pre-match choreography featured Lazio fans holding up an intricate eagle design with a banner that translated to “Support tradition.”

Roma’s crowd at the other end responded with a giant image of a wolf with a banner that said, “Attack more, wolf…go destroy them.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer