“Before the climax, the anticlimax. Battered beyond the point of collapse by Roma’s thug tactics, we crawled toward the end of the league season leaving bloody handprints all over the linoleum. If we won just one of our two remaining matches—against Atalanta and Bologna, 16th and 14th in Serie A—we’d win the title, but we were in no shape to practice, much less to play a competitive game.” (The Run of Play)