ROME: Comeback specialist Kostas Manolas scored the equaliser for AS Roma in a 3-3 draw with Atalanta in Serie A on Monday.

Eight minutes from time in Roma’s home opener, Manolas was waiting at the far post when a free kick from Aleksandar Kolarov came over the top, allowing the Greece centre-back to tap in.

With Roma having trailed 3-1 at halftime, Manolas’ goal immediately brought back memories of his decisive late score in the 3-0 victory over Barcelona in last season’s Champions League quarter-final when Roma overturned a 4-1 first-leg deficit.

However, Edin Dzeko and Patrik Schick each missed solid chances at a winner. Roma and Atalanta each have four points from the opening two rounds two points behind leaders Juventus, Napoli and Spal.

Roma had taken an early lead when newly signed Javier Pastore scored a delightful backheel goal two minutes in.

But Atalanta — who made a raft of changes ahead of their crunch Europa League playoff game this week against Copenhagen — then took advantage of poor defending including by Manolas and produced an equaliser from Timothy Castagne, then a brace from Emiliano Rigoni.

Alessandro Florenzi began Roma’s comeback by bursting through the center of Atalanta’s defense and unleashing a long shot on the hour mark.

“We were too bad to be real, but we got it back on track,” said furious Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco, whose wrist was bandaged after punching the wall of the coach’s bench in frustration.

“We did better in the second half but we didn’t defend well towards the end of the game which is why I got very mad. I wanted balance in the last 10 minutes, but we looked like amateur hour out there with 11 attacking against 11 defending. It’s no way to play.”

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2018