Como loanee Alberto Dossena made his first appearance since last March at the heart of a makeshift Cagliari defence that was missing the influential Yerry Mina, and Roma put plenty of pressure on the visitors’ backline early on.
The 27-year-old was booked less than six minutes into his return for a trip on Malen, before Evan Ndicka headed over from the resulting free-kick.
Elia Caprile almost embarrassed himself when he let a 16th-minute backpass roll towards his own goal, but the Cagliari goalkeeper raced back to clear the ball off the line.
Roma, though, continued to press, and Malen eventually gave them the lead in sumptuous fashion shortly before the half-hour mark. The forward darted in behind the defence to meet Gianluca Mancini’s pass and beat Dossena, before dinking the ball over Caprile for his second goal for the club since his arrival on loan from Aston Villa last month.
Malen and Daniele Ghilardi both headed off target late in the opening period, while Roma were untroubled at the other end as they kept a first-half clean sheet for the 10th time in 12 SA home games this term.
Cagliari managed to stem the flow of chances after the break, and Roma boss Gian Piero Gasperini brought on Bayern Munich loanee Bryan Zaragoza for his debut just before the hour mark.
Nevertheless, the second goal finally arrived 20 minutes after half-time when man of the moment Malen bundled home Zeki Celik’s low cross into the six-yard box.
Cagliari needed something special to have any hope of extending a winning run that stood at three matches prior to kick-off, and midfielder Ibrahim Sulemana almost provided it with a swerving effort from long range that kissed the top of the crossbar.
Dossena poked an effort wide with seven minutes remaining but it was too little, too late for Cagliari, who are now winless in their past 11 visits to Roma (D2), with eight of those defeats to nil.
Fabio Pisacane’s men stay 12th in SA, while their opponents only trail Juve on goal difference after ending their two-game blip (D1, L1) in the league.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Donyell Malen (Roma)
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