As Uefa began its inquiry after the violence at the Olympic Stadium and British newspaper headlines blaming police brutality arrived on newsstands here, most Italians shrugged off the row.

Television bulletins placed the story low down in their running orders, ahead of local crime stories but below the return to Britain of the sailors and Marines captured in Iran, the Pope opening Easter ceremonies and the debate over Italy’s new electoral law. Some Italians were unaware of the mayhem because Italian television showed limited images of the clashes in the stadium during the match on Wednesday.

As the day wore on, Italian television news bulletins and newspaper websites began to run the story of the violence more prominently, but largely as a baffled and rather pained reaction to “British media reports” accusing the Italian police of targeting Manchester United fans and using unnecessary and excessive force.

Many locals seemed to agree with Achille Serra, the Rome chief of police, that his men had acted correctly. “If anyone is able to demonstrate the contrary I will be the first to call for an inquiry,” he said. The police had been “obliged to interefere” to restore order. He denied that the police had picked on United fans and he dismissed rumours that 1,500 English fans had got in without tickets as “fantasy”.

When the violence erupted on Wednesday, the general reaction on Italian television postmatch discussions was that there had been “a bit of trouble”, but the real interest was in the goals. As a result, yesterday’s front-page headlines were about AS Roma’s victory. There was barely a mention of the “scuffles” between United and Roma fans, or between supporters and the police.

Corriere dello Sport’s front page was headlined “Vucinic’s golden goal”, with reports of the clashes on an inside page. “Guerrilla war — twenty wounded, seven English fans knifed” it reported in a piece tucked well beneath the match reports. It claimed that the police had waded into United fans “to repulse an assault by the Red Devils — three of whom were arrested — against Roma fans”.

As for violence outside the stadium, Italian reports unanimously blamed it on alcohol, this time however pointing the finger as much at the AS Roma Ultras as at the English visitors.

La Repubblica said: “Clearly, the attempt to ban sales of alcohol in Rome had no effect whatever. Every fan looking for a fight had a bottle in his hand. The ground in front of the Olympic Stadium was a sea of broken glass before the match.”

Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, confined its coverage of the violence to its local news pages, accusing bar owners of circumventing the alcohol ban by allowing fans to take bottles away. It added that, in any case, the takeaway ban was pointless because many fans “spent the day inside bars and pubs drinking themselves into oblivion”.