Torino 0-1 Roma
Paulo Dybala’s first-half penalty fired AS Roma into Serie A's top four and helped I Giallorossi to earn a first away win since January with a comfortable 1-0 win at Torino.
Intent on ending their two-match winless run and keeping their very remote hopes of finishing in Serie A’s top-six alive, Torino controlled the early stages, but couldn’t find any killer instinct to break down AS Roma. Ultimately, Il Toro’s lack of cutting edge was soon punished, as Perr Schuurs used both hands to palm away Nicola Zalewski’s vicious shot on goal for a penalty. With confidence flowing from his spot-kick conversion against Sampdoria last time out, Paulo Dybala stepped up assertively and fired down the middle past the diving Vanja Milinković-Savić.
As the third-lowest Serie A home scorers this season, with just 11 goals at Stadio Olimpico di Torino before kick-off, Il Toro now faced a daunting task – especially against a Roma defence that travelled having kept seven league clean sheets since the New Year. Even so, they were nothing if not persistent as HT loomed, and Ricardo Rodríguez came closest to levelling the scores before the break, as his thunderous effort from distance flew marginally wide but still had Rui Patrício scrambling across goal.
Desperate to level parity early in the second period, Torino started on the front foot again and dominated possession. Yet, for all their control, the requisite finishing touches eluded Il Toro, as a flowing move cut through Roma’s defence and ended with Patrício clawing Aleksei Miranchuk’s glancing header onto the post. A scrappy finale to the contest ensured, which inevitably worked in Roma’s favour, and I Giallorossi seemed content to sit back and keep a lacklustre Torino at an arm's length.
The defeat leaves Torino winless in three and with their European hopes fading faster than ever, as Ivan Jurić’s side – who occupied seventh place at the start of 2023 – now sit 12th in Serie A. As for Roma, they have still dropped just two points when going ahead in Serie A this season, and La Lupa’s early advantage was never really under threat. Still with continental honours in their sights for a second consecutive season, José Mourinho’s men remain firmly in the hunt for UEFA Champions League football.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Paulo Dybala (AS Roma)
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Verona 2-1 Sassuolo
Sassuolo’s five game unbeaten run came to an end after they were defeated 2-1 by Hellas Verona at the Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi. Verona managed to simultaneously end a winless run that spanned six matches (D2, L4).
Verona have kept three clean sheets in their last six home games so were likely to be a stubborn force for Sassuolo to break down. This was the case for the opening 34 minutes, until some magic from Domenico Berardi unlocked the defence, before putting a perfect ball into the area for Abdou Harroui to head home his second goal of the season.
Sassuolo began to grow in confidence after their opener, with more spaces opening up for them to exploit. They went close to grabbing a second shortly before the break when the ball fell to Brazilian full-back Rogério on the edge of the area, who let a shot fly but it took a heavy deflection on the way through and went narrowly wide.
The Yellow and Blues found themselves in a tricky position after the break, with them having to find a goal to try and take something from the game, despite being Serie A’s second lowest scorers with just 22 goals all season. The Neroverdi still looked the more likely to grab the next goal and went close again nine minutes after HT, when some slick football saw Andrea Pinamonti find Davide Frattesi in the area, but the midfielder was off balance and as a result fired over.
The home side did go close in the closing stages of the game through Giangiacomo Magnani, when he saw his glancing header cleared off the line by Sassuolo midfielder Maxime Lopez. Despite Verona’s poor goalscoring record they managed to snatch an equaliser with just six minutes remaining, substitute Federico Ceccherini rose highest to meet a corner and head it in at the near post. The game took a huge turn in added time when Verona took the lead after a monumental error from Andrea Consigli who passed the ball straight to Adolfo Gaich and the Argentine lobbed the keeper to send the home fans into raptures. The game ended with the Yellow and Blues claiming all three points and closing the gap between themselves and 17th place to four points as they look to secure Serie A safety.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Lorenzo Montipo (Hellas Verona)
