The Talking Point: Fighting spirit crucial ahead of derby

Ahead of Friday’s Derby della Capitale meeting with Lazio, Roma showed stellar resolve in earning a late point against Inter Milan on Sunday - just the kind of spirit that will delight Paulo Fonseca ahead of derby day in Rome.

As Achraf Hakimi’s 63rd minute strike thumped bar and post before bouncing over the line and into Pau Lopez’s net, the Giallorossi and their supporters will have been excused from feeling a pang of deja vu.

Having led from the 17th minute until the 57th, Roma had seen their excellent first half work undone by a rapid-fire double from their opponents; not for the first time this season.

Previous defeats to Napoli and Atalanta - their only two in the league (on the pitch) so far this season - were each rammed home by opposition flourishes in the second period.

Napoli’s 1-0 lead was anything but beyond a Roma equaliser before they struck three times in 22 minutes to earn a suddenly far more convincing 4-0 victory on Matchday 9.

Then, four games later, Roma flew out the traps to go in front after just two minutes at Atalanta, only for their hosts to bury a 12 minute treble that left Paulo Fonseca’s side stunned as they ultimately succumbed to a 4-1 loss.

Given those two previous results, all signs pointed towards the Milan Skriniar-Hakimi one-two gut punch - that turned the game on its head in the space of just seven second half minutes - delivering an Inter victory, and quite possibly a convincing one.

Fonseca himself described the 20 minutes after the break that allowed Inter to take the lead as “fatal”, but his side were able to put previous capitulations behind them and instead stir the kind of response that should strengthen them heading into future challenges.

Rather than allowing their heads to drop or any sense of an inevitable defeat seep in, Roma responded aggressively and launched a late onslaught of their own that eventually saw Inter’s defence relent as Gianluca Mancini glanced Gonzalo Villar’s cross into the far corner to clinch a dramatic draw with just four minutes remaining.

And Mancini was quick to acknowledge just how important it was to avoid a similar demise as those in Naples and Bergamo previously.

"The important thing is we didn’t suffer the ‘blackout’ like in other matches,” he said.

“The games against Napoli and Atalanta were lessons for us, they were painful. In other games we lost our heads, but here we stayed in it and found the right time to equalise.”

On the eve of a meeting with Lazio that could either stretch Roma’s lead over their city rivals to nine points or reduce the gap to three, it couldn’t have been a better time for Fonseca's team to hold their nerve and show such fight against one of the favourites for the title.

Should the Giallorossi take that kind of never-say-die spirit into Friday’s fixture, and future heavyweight meetings with other rivals, there’s more than a good chance of further positive results lying just around the corner...