With the sting of a somewhat embarrassing loss to Lille in the Europa League on Thursday still fresh in their minds, Roma traveled to Florence today for a deceptively challenging match against 17th-place
Fiorentina. Although the Viola have struggled significantly early this season, Roma hasn’t had much success at the Artemio Franchi in recent years. Since 2022, Roma has a record of 0-1-3 (W-D-L) in Florence, a slump highlighted by last fall’s 5-1 drubbing, Roma’s worst league defeat since a 5-0 thrashing by Juventus in 1990.
Still, it wasn’t all bad news for the capital club today, as Paulo Dybala returned to the fray after missing three weeks with a hamstring injury. With Gian Piero Gasperini choosing to play it safe with La Joya, Matías Soulé was joined in the attack by Artem Dovbyk and Tommaso Baldanzi, who was making his first start of the season.
However, despite sitting on opposite ends of the table, Fiorentina gave Roma all they could handle in the opening 10 to 15 minutes this afternoon. With Stefano Pioli’s backline moving in lockstep and the Viola midfield closing ranks, Gasperini’s men were noticeably frustrated, frequently throwing up their hands, seemingly disgusted at their inability to unlock the Fiorentina defense.
And then, as is frequently the case with Roma, things went from bad to worse:
After corralling a bouncing loose ball in midfield, Gianluca Mancini had no choice but to settle it with his chest. While doing so, he collided with Zeki Celik, which paved the way for Hans Nicolussi Caviglia to find Kean breaking free down the left channel. From there, Kean twisted past Evan Ndicka before slotting the ball into the far corner—the Paramount commentator had issues with Svilar here, but no one was stopping Kean here.
And just like that, visions of last October’s 5-1 horror show danced through our collective heads, but Roma didn’t have to wait long for retribution.
Before we remark on yet another brilliant moment from Matías Soulé, take a second to appreciate Artem Dovbyk’s clever assist here; a one-touch back heel that met Soulé at the perfect moment. With the ball rolling past Baldanzi, Soulé one-timed it past David De Gea to level the match at one apiece. This was Soulé’s sixth goal from outside the box, the most in Serie A since the start of the 2023-2024 season.
Moments later, Baldanzi and Soulé nearly teamed up to put the Giallorossi ahead, only to be denied by a shrewdly placed purple boot. But the young Argentine would have a say in the match-winner several minutes later.
After Soulé played the ball intentionally short of the near post, Bryan Cristante met the tight-angled in-swinger at the edge of the six-yard box and expertly flicked it just inside the near post, putting Roma up one goal at the half-hour mark.
Not content with one goal and an assist in the first 30 minutes, Soulé took the initiative again, driving the ball into the box and laying it off to Wesley at the edge of the 18. The Brazilian wing-back took Soulé’s ball and immediately swung it across the face of the goal towards Dovbyk at the left-hand post, but the Ukrainian striker couldn’t quite reach the ball, leaving a potential insurance goal on the table.
With a one-goal lead in their pocket, Roma did their best to bottle up the Viola as the first half wound down but almost saw their lead vanish in the 38th minute when Kean clanged a curler off the post—bullet dodged, but Roma went into the break with a very precarious one-goal lead.
Given the frenetic finish to the first half, this match had the makings of a four or five-goal barn burner, but the deluge of goals never came. While the Giallorossi tempted fate throughout the second half, seeing Roberto Piccoli hit the woodwork in the 73rd minute and Robert Gosens miss a near-empty netter in the 81st minute, Gasperini’s defense held firm, delivering Roma’s fifth win in six matches.
Final Thoughts
While we’re still waiting for the end-to-end vertical football of Gasperini’s Atalanta teams to show up in the capital, slowly but surely, Roma’s mettle is shining through. After Kean’s first-half golazo, it would have been easy to chalk this up as another frustrating afternoon in Firenze, but Roma kept their wits about them and thanks to a brilliant performance from Soulé and another lockdown job by Ndicka and firends, the Giallorossi will finish round six no worse than joint top of the table!
Up Next
Rome returns to action on October 18th when they host Inter Milan
