Roma may still be smarting after their midweek Coppa Italia exit to Torino, but a unique wrinkle in the Serie A calendar means they must face the same team only a few days later. The Coppa defeat was a joyless one, decided on margins that Roma never quite managed to bend. It’s lingering (in my mind, at the very least) because the loss felt avoidable. Given all that, tomorrow’s match takes on an additional layer: Torino isn’t likely to be fighting the Giallorossi for a Champions League spot, but this
match is still a chance to restore momentum, reassert control, and remind Torino that the Coppa result was just an aberration.
Beyond wanting to push back on the disappointment of the Coppa, Roma are also heading to Turin while the squad is in serious flux, especially in the attacking third. Frederic Massara’s January business, which admittedly started slow but has now kicked into high gear, is reshaping how this side can hurt opponents. With Artem Dovbyk ruled out for an extended period, there’s no chance for new signings Robinio Vaz and Donyell Malen to integrate into the side slowly. They need to integrate immediately, in a fixture that offers little margin for error when it comes to Roma’s fight for CL football. The hope has to be that Vaz brings connective tissue between midfield and attack while Malen offers verticality and chaos. At a minimum, they both provide alternatives to the more static (and disappointing) patterns that occasionally bog Roma down when either Dovbyk or Ferguson lead the line alone.
Match Details
Date: January 18th
Kickoff: 18:00 CET/12:00 EST
Venue: Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Torino
Referee: Daniele Chiffi
There’s also the additional wrinkle of Antonio Arena, whose goal against Torino in the Coppa raises a lot of questions. The 16-year-old scored with his very first touch in senior football on debut, heading home to level the score at 2-2 before Torino ultimately won. It was a remarkable moment in its own right, but it also made him one of the youngest goalscorers in Roma history, coming in behind only a couple of club icons on the age list. Arena’s bursting onto the scene accentuates the broader point: Roma’s forward options are suddenly deeper and more varied than they seemed even a few weeks ago. Between Arena’s breakthrough, the new additions of Robinio Vaz and Donyell Malen, and the existing presence of an improving Evan Ferguson, Gasperini has real flexibility in how he attacks Sunday’s challenge. Even with Dovbyk unavailable for the foreseeable future, this group offers different tools to unlock defenses and change games.
What to Watch For
Will Roma’s Attack Be Boosted From the Jump?
The story of Roma’s season to date has been a brilliant defense, carrying an offense that has at times labored to score enough goals. Through 20 Serie A matches, Roma have conceded only 12 goals (fewest in the league) and kept nine clean sheets, showing their back line and the superstar qualities of Mile Svilar are the true foundation for their Champions League push. Yet on the attacking side, they’ve managed just 24 league goals (1.20 per game) and sit outside the top tier of Serie A’s goalscoring charts, even with above-average expected goals. That imbalance is precisely what Massara’s January window was designed to address.
Enter Donyell Malen and Robinio Vaz. Malen, arriving on loan from Aston Villa with a potential obligation to buy, brings a track record of scoring and positional versatility at club and international level, having scored 104 goals in close to 300 senior appearances across PSV, Dortmund, Villa, and the Netherlands national team. The hope is that his ability to shoot with both feet and run behind rigid defensive lines will turn Malen into a Dovbyk (and maybe Ferguson) replacement moving forward. Meanwhile, Robinio Vaz is less proven but offers youthful pace, directness, and some amazing goals per minute stats, a profile that could help unsettle defenders before they settle into a compact block, particularly during the later stages of the game.
Whether that boost from Malen and Vaz happens from the jump is the central question here, and one that might determine if Roma can actually get Champions League football for next season. In his pre-match presser, Gasperini has made clear that Malen may need time before becoming a regular starter, which is a realistic caveat given the adjustment to Serie A and the fact that he only just joined the side a few days ago. Vaz’s impact is even harder to project immediately, given his age and the tactical leap from Ligue 1 to Italian football. Still, if either newcomer can provide even a handful of incisive actions early, it will suggest that Roma’s attack is ready to take a meaningful step forward.
How Do Roma Adapt to the Same Opponent Twice In a Week?
Facing the same opponent twice in a week strips a match down to its essentials. There’s no mystery left to solve for Gian Piero Gasperini tomorrow—only decisions to make. Roma already know where Torino are comfortable, where they are stubborn, and where they can be nudged out of shape. What matters now is not recognition, but intervention: how Roma choose to disrupt the midweek game state that Torino would happily recreate.
Midweek, Roma too often allowed the match to settle into Torino’s preferred rhythm. Possession was steady but sterile, and when Torino seized a moment, it left the Giallorossi playing catch-up. The few moments that unsettled Torino came when Roma briefly accelerated through quick switches of play, runners arriving from midfield, actions taken before the defense could reset. If you want my two cents, that means that higher fullbacks, earlier vertical passes, and a willingness to shoot through traffic rather than around it could all force Torino into defensive decisions they were rarely asked to make in the Coppa match.
Then there is the psychological layer, which may ultimately prove decisive. Torino will enter this match convinced they’ve already shown the blueprint for beating this side; Roma must prove they’ve absorbed the lesson without overcorrecting, while also bringing in exciting new options at forward. The danger for Roma will be impatience, because the Giallorossi, when pressured, sometimes chase moments instead of building them. If Roma can stay measured, trust their adjustments, and impose themselves over ninety minutes, this rematch will cement a more important goal than advancing in the Coppa: it will keep pressure on faltering Northern sides grasping for Champions League football just as Roma are.
