Roma brush aside makeshift Sassuolo to erase midweek collapse
Mario Hermoso, an own goal and Rodrigo Mora gave Roma a comfortable 3-0 win over Sassuolo, handing Alberto Aquilani a fifth straight defeat against his former club.
Roma put their midweek collapse in Manchester behind them with a routine 3-0 win over Sassuolo at the Stadio Olimpico, goals from Mario Hermoso, an own goal from Sebastian Walukiewicz and a second-half strike from Rodrigo Mora doing the damage, according to Football Italia.
The Giallorossi had led 2-0 at Old Trafford in midweek before losing 3-2, and arrived at this fixture further depleted, with Pierluigi Gollini, Gianluca Mancini and Devyne Rensch added to a casualty list that already included Paulo Dybala, Mile Svilar and Lorenzo Pellegrini, Football Italia reported. Manu Koné did return, his first appearance since a thigh injury suffered on October 14.
Aquilani faced his former club for the first time as a head coach, and did so without Domenico Berardi, Cristian Volpato, Daniel Boloca, Ismael Koné and Fedde Leysen. Sassuolo responded by switching to a 3-5-2 shape, a defensive adjustment that briefly worked before Roma's quality told.
A sharp start from Sassuolo could not last
Sassuolo's back three nearly made an early statement of intent. Devis Vasquez had to turn away a Nemanja Matic drive in the opening minutes, and Duje Caleta-Car was forced into a goal-line clearance to deny Leonardo Balerdi's header from a Mora corner, per Football Italia's account. Against the run of that opening spell, Roma's first meaningful move produced the opener.
Hermoso's goal illustrated the problem a back three with wing-backs can create against a side comfortable building through midfield: the centre-back was afforded the space to surge from deep, link with Donyell Malen, and still be in position when the ball returned to him. He finished from 14 yards in the 27th minute.
Three minutes later Sassuolo were two down. Malen's drive was arguably drifting wide before deflecting twice, off Jay Idzes and then Walukiewicz, past Arijanet Muric for the own goal. Two goals in three minutes from two pieces of broken-down defending rather than sustained pressure summed up how thin Sassuolo's resistance had become once their initial intensity dropped.
Roma's profligacy kept the game from running away completely
For all Roma's control, the scoreline understated their wastefulness. Matias Soulé beat the offside trap early in the second half and rounded Muric with the goal gaping, only to try to square for Malen instead of finishing himself. Malen, not expecting the pass, was badly placed and the chance went begging.
Malen was at the centre of several more missed opportunities. He forced a save from Muric after being sent clear by Hermoso, and later dribbled past the goalkeeper again only for Caleta-Car to scramble clear in front of an empty net. Niccolò Pisilli also tested Muric's near-post reflexes late on. Roma's shot count of 28 to Sassuolo's nine shows the extent of the territorial dominance that the final score only partially reflects.
Mora's give-and-go settled any lingering doubt
The third goal, in the 58th minute, was the cleanest example of Roma's quality in combination play. Mora exchanged a give-and-go with Malen and drilled the return pass through Caleta-Car's legs and into the bottom corner with his right foot, finishing a move built on quick, direct one-two passing rather than prolonged build-up through midfield.
Roma's possession figure of 65 percent against Sassuolo's 35 reflects a match in which the home side rarely had to defend in numbers, but the shot tally, ten on target to Sassuolo's one, is the more telling measure of a game that was never genuinely contested after the opening ten minutes.
The result stretches Sassuolo's losing run under Aquilani to five matches, with his first fixture against the club that gave him his start in management ending in a heavy, one-sided defeat. For Roma, it answers the collapse at Old Trafford with a response built on control rather than conviction in front of goal, a distinction their coaching staff will want addressed before the next test.