Well, so much for an easier match. The Giallorossi lost their midweek bout with LOSC Lille 1-0 due to some key defensive errors and not one, not two, but three missed penalties. That’s a loss that is going
to sting for a while, even if it doesn’t exactly tank Roma’s chances of advancing in the Europa League. Nevertheless, Roma’s schedule marches on, leading them to tomorrow’s match against Stefano Pioli’s 17th-place Fiorentina.
That status near the bottom of the Serie A table is an indicator just how far things have fallen for Fiorentina. They’ve notched no wins, three draws, and two losses to start the season—a far cry from the sixth-place finish they achieved in the 2024-2025 season. There’s no doubt that Fiorentina won’t be stuck near the relegation zone for the entire season, but Pioli’s side certainly look the part of the wounded bear at the moment. It’ll be up to the Giallorossi to avoid falling victim to the desperate moves of a club looking to secure its first Serie A win, and instead neatly sew up their own fifth win to keep the pressure on Milan, Napoli, and Inter.
What to Watch For
It’s Tsimikas Time
Roma’s left flank is the main focus of my attention heading into this match. With Angeliño felled by a bout of flu and ruled out for the trip to Florence, Gian Piero Gasperini has been left to choose between improvisation and logic — and logic says hand the starting spot to Kostas Tsimikas despite his poor play in Roma’s midweek match against Lille. In theory, handing a spot in the starting eleven to a Liverpool-seasoned professional who already knows how to cross, press and annoy full-backs into mistakes has to be the right move. Right?
Match Details
Date: October 5th
Kickoff: 15:00 CET/9:00 EDT
Venue: Stadio Artemio Franchi, Firenze
Referee: Andrea Colombo
The trouble is, of course, that Lille performance. Tsimikas was guilty of a defensive lapse in the very early moments — he was dispossessed and then punished, with Lille’s goal coming as the direct result of that. That poor decision plus no rebound after the fact meant that it was unsurprising when Gasperini subbed the Greek out at halftime. So while experience and composure count, the midweek match shows that those qualities aren’t always enough to seal the deal: mistakes can unspool an entire plan, particularly in defense.
And yet, demand for redemption is in the air. Following the Lille match, Gasperini made it clear he trusts both Tsimikas and Angeliño, calling them “reliable” options on the left, similar in traits if not in versatility. With Fiorentina in seriously poor form (win over Czech side Sigma in the Europa Conference League notwithstanding), this is the kind of match where Tsimikas might be able to shift his momentum back in the right direction. It’s certainly a chance at the very least: a chance to prove he can quickly come back from an embarrassment, to make that left flank a weapon again even without Angeliño, and to quiet critics who wondered if Frederic Massara might need to go left-back shopping yet again this January.
Can Soulé Add Consistency?
There’s no doubt that Matías Soulé has been one of Roma’s brightest stars to start the season—particularly in attack. The Argentine forward seems to have made the jump from wonderkid to full-blown star, and at just the right moment given Paulo Dybala’s ongoing injury issues and the lack of goalscoring threat from either Evan Ferguson or Artem Dovbyk. His goal against Verona at the Olimpico—somehow his first at home!—felt like a coming-of-age moment. Sure, it was a tap-in, but it was coolly taken and full of the kind of confidence that marks a player ready to shoulder a significant load for their club. Even when fatigue set in—and we know that Gasperini sides push their players to their physical limits—Soulé stayed switched on, still demanding the ball, still trying to make something happen. That’s a leader’s mindset, and an encouraging thing to see in such a young player.
As always, though, there’s a next step for Soulé, and it is developing even more consistency as a player. Soulé looked human again in the midweek match against Lille—he missed a penalty, struggled to impose himself, and faded quickly as the match wore on. Roma needs him to be a creative center of gravity, and he just couldn’t provide that on Wednesday. He’s taken on the Paulo Dybala role, for better and for worse: when he’s on, Roma’s attack looks unpredictable and alive. When he drifts, it all feels overly laborious. This is the thin line separating good young players from great ones, and right now, Soulé is learning to walk it every weekend.
It’s clear from Gasperini’s comments that he trusts Soulé to land on the side of the great young players for the long term. Soulé has been granted the keys to the final third; he’s encouraged to take risks and improvise, to Roma’s great benefit. The challenge now is translating his regular star performances into regular star performances that last the full ninety: he needs to do the right thing in the 80th minute as instinctively as in the 8th. If he can find that ability to perform at the star level no matter how tired he is, watch out: Roma will go from having an exciting young star to a superstar, no qualifiers needed.
