Hellas Verona-Roma 1-3: It always wins in the end

His name is Cristian Volpato the hero of the day. He is not yet 19 years old, but he has already given Roma the three points in a match with Verona that seemed bewitched from the time when Abraham in the first half did not frame the goal after also jumping over the goalkeeper, then when he went under for an irregular goal and then when in eleven against ten for an hour he failed to score the winning goal after Zaniolo's equalizer at the end of the first half. Instead, in the end, came a goal and an assist (for El Shaarawy) from Volpato and Roma won its game 3-1, regaining fourth place and arriving at the derby in the best condition. This is all provided that Ludogorets also adjusted tomorrow.

The first half ran on the edge of errors. It was the one that deprived Roma of an already-acquired lead in the 19th minute. There was an empty-goal goalpost by Abraham when the goalkeeper already missed; self-defeating the one that forced Verona to play 10 down from the 33rd minute. This was when, perhaps, in a competitive trance from having scored the winning goal seven minutes earlier, Dawidowicz intervened with a reckless, karate-chopping lunge on the inside of Zaniolo's knee and was rightly sent off. However, the uncertain Sacchi still needed the comfort of Var to wave off a red that was apparent to everyone on the field and those watching from the stands. Excluding, of course, the "very civilized" home crowd, which from that moment on took it out on Zaniolo, guilty of getting back on his feet and then even scoring the equalizing goal as the first half expired.

These were the decisive split-second episodes faced with too much phlegm by Roma and with great agonism by Verona, without it being clear from the outside what was the cause and what was the effect. The tactical lineups were identical, with three defenders (with the usual Smalling between Mancini and Ibañez, much to the chagrin of the former Kumbulla, grinding it out on the bench), two midfielders (the bungling Cristante and the increasingly positive Camara in Roma, the geometric Veloso and the spirited Hongla in Verona), two skillful outfielders (Karsdorp and the timid Zalewski on one side, De Paoli and Faraoni on the other), two attacking midfielders (Pellegrini, in a boring version, and Zaniolo, on the other hand well calibrated to Roma's commitment, Kallon and Tameze for them) and a striker, Abraham on this side, Henry on the other. In the stands, there were great cheers for Verona and Giallorossi splendor in the guest sector, filled with nearly 4,000 people. 

Suggesting that it was not going to be an easy night came an immediate double defensive blunder by Roma and a low cross by Faraoni that put a shiver down Rui Patricio's spine, with the ball sliding all along the horizontal line of the goal. In the 16th minute, Kallon tried, with a Smalling touch muffed by the goalkeeper. In the 17th minute, Ceccherini committed a first-caution foul on Zaniolo, but the referee pardoned him. In the 19th minute, there was a sensational missed chance by Abraham, with the defense's quick exit. There was also Zaniolo's hooked header freeing Karsdorp (as usual man-marked by Verona at full-back, when he loses a pawn he remains free until the end) who ran down the path in front of him until he served into cutback the Englishman, who with a touch skipped past Montipò who came out with the wrong timing and then incredibly failed to take aim from three meters with the goal wide open, hitting the outside post (his seventh of the season) and generating a grimace of puzzlement mixed with disapproval on Mourinho's face. Then it was time to finally see Ceccherini cautioned, for another blatant foul on Zaniolo, and Abraham had another chance, this time on a low cross from Karsdorp missed by Gunter: good diving Tammy, unlucky in the outcome of the trajectory, which bounced to the ground and hung close to the crossbar of the posts. In the 26th minute, came Verona's goal suddenly and unexpectedly, on an unsuccessful corner kick scheme, with the ball arriving outside the box Faraoni controlled and kicked, however, finding Dawidowicz's almost fortuitous deflection into the box to deceive Rui. It took a lengthy Var approval before giving the okay for the resumption of play to assess the position of Henry, who in an offside position only touched the ball, but clearly restricted Rui Patricio's view. In the 33rd minute, the already described red to the Polish defender prompted Bocchetti to lower Tameze from the three-quarter of the field to the defensive line, drawing a 342 that would be replicated again at the beginning of the second half, with the entry of Hien in place of Ceccherini and Lasagna in place of Kallon. 

In the meantime, however, Zaniolo had equalized, and made the most of an initiative by Camara, among the best of his team, who snatched the high ball from Tameze's own feet, served Abraham who shot hard right at the post (and eight) with Nicolò following suit and sending the tap-in into the empty goal.

To raise the center of gravity, Mourinho put in El Shaarawy for Cristante at the start of the second half and after 12 minutes Belotti for Zalewski and Volpato for Zaniolo who, sore from the blow he suffered in the first half, tried until the last to trouble the Verona men (his was also an initiative in the 7th minute, unsuccessfully) before surrendering the change. Verona retreated all in its half and began to defend with order, leaving at times those gaps into which Roma struggled to enter because of the excessive static nature of many of the players on the field. So Mourinho also put Matic in Mancini's place for a sort of 2-4-4 with Matic and Camara in front of the two remaining center-backs, Karsdorp and El Shaarawy high up the sides, and four offensive players in no particular order, Pellegrini and Volpato in the three-quarter, Belotti and Abraham in the box. And as if that were not enough, in the 38th minute, with the score still 1-1 he also inserted Shomurodov for the exhausted Camara. There were not many occasions in total because Verona defended well, not giving up any offensive ambitions, but dropping compactly in their own three-quarter. In the 17th minute, Karsdorp got a good header on a nice cross from Camara, but instead of finishing toward the goal, he tried to tower for a teammate, finding instead a blue-shirted defender ready to deflect. In the 19th minute, Belotti had space up front but realized it when it was too late and got his shot back. In the 27th minute, Belotti again tried to catch Montipò by surprise by shooting instead of crossing from the right side, but the goalkeeper was not surprised. In the 34th minute Pellegrini also, in one of his few technical gestures, sent the Gallo into space, but his shot was blocked by Magnani. And when, in the 37th minute, Matic hit the crossbar (and nine) coming off a corner, the suspicion rose high that Roma would not win the game. Instead, two minutes from the end the same Matic in a prolonged action on the left sent a couple of opponents to the bar before offloading to the edge where Volpato kicked first perfectly angling the ball. And two minutes after the 90th minute again Volpato was in a restart in the prairies that at that point opened up and allowed him to wait for the right time to serve in overlapping El Shaarawy, who was very good in turn to jump with a very soft touch from Montipò and then was able to score with an empty goal.