While Roma’s first match back in the Champions League didn’t knock anyone’s socks off, it’s still such a relief to see the Giallorossi back in Europe’s best continental cup. The 1-1 draw to Fenerbahçe ended Roma’s perfect start to the season across all competitions, but it was a hard-fought match where there were definite positives to be pulled from the performance. Now, the Giallorossi return to Serie A with some players in need of a rest and others in need of an opportunity to shine.
Enter Torino
FC, Turin’s other club, who welcome Roma to the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino tomorrow evening. It’s been a challenging start to the season for Ignazio Abate’s men, as they’ve already crashed out of the Coppa Italia and dropped their first two league matches to Milan and Sassuolo. Still, last weekend’s comeback win over Fiorentina got Torino their first win of the season, and however uneven this Granata side has looked, Il Toro’s squad still has the ability to create a difficult night for the Giallorossi, particularly if Roma is still mentally smarting from their draw in Istanbul. Injuries to Cesare Casadei and Saúl Coco have indeed left real gaps through the spine of Torino’s team, but make no mistake: this isn’t going to be a quick and easy win for Gian Piero Gasperini.
Match Details
Date: September 14th
Kickoff: 18:30 CET/12:30 EDT
Venue: Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Torino
Referee: Fabio Maresca
For Roma, the question is less whether they can beat Torino tomorrow (they can) and more how much Gasperini can tinker with the starting eleven while still bringing three points back home to Trigoria. The fitness report isn’t entirely clean to start with, as Manu Koné picked up a knock against Fenerbahçe that will factor into selection. It wouldn’t be surprising if a bunch of other players, including Bryan Cristante, Gianluca Mancini, and Paulo Dybala, get the night off instead of risking an injury with Champions League play still starting up. Welcome back to the Champions League, friends: this is the trade-off of being back in the highest level of European competition after all these years. The calendar stops being forgiving, particularly during what used to be called “group stage” play, and the manager has to start trusting the depth of the roster instead of than leaning on the same tried and true starting eleven every three days.
Thankfully, this is a Roma squad built with exactly that kind of rotation in mind, and a trip to Turin against a Torino side still finding its footing is about as reasonable a spot as you’ll get to test it. The stakes are straightforward: to the surprise of many, Roma currently sit atop Serie A with a perfect record through three matches. A fourth win, even from a rotated starting XI, will make a significant statement about Roma’s ability to be the “anti-Inter” and fight for more than Champions League qualification for the 2027/2028 season.
If that win happens, it’ll most likely be due to Roma’s offensive firepower. The Giallorossi have scored ten goals and conceded just once through three league matches, and there’s no reason a few subs should change Roma’s ability to exploit the weaknesses in a Torino side that’s already given up five goals. So far, the Giallorossi have shown themselves to be a multifaceted team where a win can come from any number of players. Tomorrow’s match is a great place to show that even with higher turnover, that same principle still applies.
What to Watch For
Might this be Mora’s Moment?
Even if you remove the proviso that he only turned 19 five months ago, Rodrigo Mora’s start in Rome has gone quite well. The Portuguese attacking midfielder has consistently impressed as both a starter and substitute through the first four games of Roma’s season; he’s scored once already against Lecce, but more importantly, he’s slotted in perfectly as both a complement to and a substitute for Paulo Dybala. He is not La Joya just yet, but if you squint a bit, you can see a path for the diminutive forward that mimics the best of what Dybala can provide.
According to reports, that consistent strong play to start the season has resulted in Gian Piero Gasperini entrusting the creative attacking midfielder role to Mora tomorrow against Torino. Part of that decision is based on the reality that Dybala has been playing the kind of workload to date that he hasn’t in nearly a decade. He’s been closing out matches, sometimes doubled over in cramps, and while he’s a critical part of what Roma does, he needs to be that critical cog for an entire season, not just September. With a match against Inter next Saturday looking more and more like the ultimate early litmus test for this side, Gasperini has every incentive to hold off on starting Dybala now to preserve his fitness, rather than finding out the hard way that Dybala’s fitness luck ran out at the exact wrong moment. Dybala has been vintage Dybala to start the season; with reports suggesting that he’s getting a rest tomorrow, it looks like Gasperini understands just how important it is to keep him available for the long term.
That makes tomorrow’s match a truly unique moment for Mora. There’s no Dybala to defer to, no other beating heart of the attacking midfield to complement. Instead, this will be Mora’s first chance to make the case that he should be a regular starter for this side, as well as a clear key piece of its future. Gasperini himself has tempered expectations for Mora this week; he noted that Mora still has real physical and tactical development ahead of him, so even if Mora pulls off a hat-trick tomorrow, don’t expect him to get his name engraved in the starting XI in perpetuity. However, it’s true that the kind of development Gasp wants Mora to exhibit doesn’t happen while sitting on the bench. If Mora can impress in a start against a Torino side that’s shown its fair share of defensive cracks, it’s a signal that Mora Magic may be coming to a stadium near you very, very soon.
