Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma were clinical against Spezia as they went home with Maximum points, all down to Paulo Dyabala’s assists
The former Juventus forward provided assists for both Stephan El Shaarawy and Tammy Abraham for the clinical visitors to return to Re with maximum points.
The referee was called into action when Nicola Zalewski went down under pressure from Salva Ferrer. He made the right call as he was very close and waved play on, evaluating they had simply crossed paths and accidentally clipped each other.
Stephan El Shaarawy’s shot went straight to Bartlomiej Dragowski, while Petko Hristov took one for the team with a risky block to stop Tammy Abraham from going clear on Gianluca Mancini’s pass.
The host got their first reasonable chance, but Zalewski cut inside from the left to blast the ball over the bar, as did El Shaarawy.
Abraham got his first chance when he nodded a Dybala free-kick across the face of the goal, inches away from a Mancini tap-in.
After Arkadiusz Reca’s ferocious half-volley went over the bar, Roma took the lead with a well-worked move. Abraham started the move by nodding on a long ball to El Shaarawy, who sent Dybala running down the right. The Italian striker was ready to meet the roll across from La Joya for a simple tap-in and made no mistake.
Medhi Bourabia was lucky not to.be given the marching straight after the restart. He avoided a second yellow card for going in late on Chris Smalling.
Roma later made it two when Dybala intercepted a loose Salvatore Esposito pass. The World Cup winner immediately released a through pass for Abraham, who nutmegged Mattia Caldara and rushed forward to slide the finish beneath Dragowski’s legs.
Caldara almost scored into his net when his header tested Dragowski and Abraham fired the follow-up across the face of the goal with nobody able to get the final touch.
Roma defended their lead, only allowing Daniel Maldini to curl an effort over the bar while Viktor Kovalenko’s effort was charged down.
Written by Oladipupo Mojeed