Three days after its defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League, AS Roma returned to Serie A this Saturday with the reception of Genoa, on the occasion of the 7th day of the championship. Third before the match, Gian Piero Gasperini’s men had to deal with several important absences, notably those of Paulo Dybala, Manu Koné and Mile Svilar, injured, while Donyell Malen was suspended. Opposite, Daniele De Rossi’s Genoa, 17th with four points, hoped to confirm their first victory of the season obtained against Fiorentina. Despite possession generally favorable to the Romans, the two teams went blow for blow in a lively first period. In the 31st minute, Leonardo Balerdi came close to opening the scoring with a header following a corner, but the ball crashed against the crossbar. Two minutes later, Stephan El Shaarawy responded with a superb strike from the edge of the area, which also found the bar. Despite these two huge chances, the teams returned to the locker room with a goalless draw (0-0).
Returning from the locker room, Roma wasted no time in making the difference. In the 50th minute, Santiago Castro broke the deadlock with a magnificent dive ball to score his first goal of the season (1-0). In the 68th minute, the young right piston Lulli doubled the lead by scoring the first goal of his professional career (2-0). Despite several interesting situations, Genoa was unable to deceive the Roman vigilance and ultimately had to bow to a more realistic team in front of goal. Thanks to this success (2-0), AS Roma climbs to second place in Serie A, just two points behind the leader. An ideal result before returning to the Champions League on Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. against Slovan Bratislava. For its part, Genoa falls to 19th place and will try to react next Sunday at 3 p.m. during the reception in Venice.
