Roma’s third-round match away to Udinese looked like a great game for Gilorussi, who are scrambling to claim their first win of the season. With an almost entire team at his disposal, Paolo Fonseca finally had some continuity in the squad and seemed to have all the pieces to knock down the Udinese side that had been dropping goals in this young season.

But this is the thing about gimme matches against so-called lower teams, they can quickly turn into trap games before you know it. While Udinese was content to cede possession and control of large areas of the match to Roma, the same ancient ghosts continued to chase the Giallorossi in this match: creativity and transformation.

While Roma did well in the transitional phase, countering in the blink of an eye by the tireless run of Jordan Ferretot and Pedro and Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s swift play in the final third, they were often frustrated by Udinese Low shock defense, which was more than happy to sit down and let Pedro, Ferretot and Lorenzo Pellegrini pass horizontally to their heart.

With few opportunities in the playing field, Roma had no choice but to rely on long balls over the top and the opportunity for occasional counter-attacks. Roma’s best chance in the first half was that Roger Ibanez pushed Aiden Dzico into a one-on-one match with the goalkeeper, sending the ball from midfield. Dzeko did a good job of leveling the ball and protecting himself from the last defender, but the quality of his attempt did not quite match Ibanez’s potential pass, as Dzico skipped his shot well over the bar.

As is often the case when Roma missed opportunities, their opponents were more willing to take advantage of the other side. In the last ten minutes of the first half, Udinese had two or three chances to score, with Rodrigo de Paul creating two chances with crosses in the area, but Udine’s best chance saw Kevin Lasagna receive the ball only in space. Antonio Merante To be defeated. With Mirante holding his position and directing Ibanez from behind, the lasagna seemed to lose his temper, firing straight at Mirante, while Roberto Pereira The follow-up effort is repeated over a wide range of distant prism.

For a supposed gimme match, the first half was incredibly tight, even with just a ¹⁄₃ From possession, Udinese created the most dangerous chances of the half and was unlucky enough to grab the lead.

the other half

While there were some stressful moments to start the half – Rome still He struggled to find a crack in the low mass of Udinese – they took advantage of some good luck ten minutes into the first half when Pedro hit the net for the first time with a Roma shirt.

Pedro: Minute 55 (Udinese 0, Roma 1)

I’m not quite sure what Udinese was trying to do here, but Pedro was Johnny on the spot, taking the ball straight from Udinese. Fault or no mistake, Pedro’s full marks of the effort, he drilled it right into the right shaft, shot it at the edge of the tire and into the back of the grid. It wasn’t exactly the way Fonseca painted it, but it was a much-needed target of boys in red.

Roma almost snatched again moments later when Dzico hit the ball at the edge of the penalty area for Mkhitaryan, but Mickey was a little anxious, jumping offside at a cross angle. Despite the goal disallowed, Roma was finally playing with a goal.

Udinese would face his own chance after about ten minutes, forcing Antonio Merante to tackle the double at the edge of the six-yard zone. With lasagna sliding behind the defense after an impressive ball into the area, Mirante is forced to drop his streak to deny Lasanga, only to see Fernando Forestieri pursue his Lasagna effort almost immediately, forcing the already distracted Mirante to block her hard. On his hands and knees.

Udinese will continue to press for a draw with Stefano Okaka And Nahuel Molina forced Mirante to stand up. Roma were still winning the possession battle, but Udinese was pressing higher and higher in search of a goal and might have had a goal had it not been for Okaa’s wrong shot and Mirante’s reaction to Molina’s surprise shot.

15 minutes before the end of the match, Udinese switched to an all-out attacking style, putting pressure on Roma’s defenders the moment they tried to clear the ball or initiate any form of counterattack.

Fonseca made a double change in the 84th minute, to sign Brian Cristante and Justin Kluivert in place of Pellegrini and Pedro, respectively. With six minutes left, Roma seemed intent on running out of time rather than putting the match on the bed with a second goal.

Udinese reacted by bringing almost every attacker at their disposal but Roma managed to withstand a late barrage to secure their first win of the season.

Final thoughts

Well, we just said everything, right? Roma won their first win of the season today and that’s all that matters in the end …But… having said that, this could be a match Easily He went on the Udinese road. The hosts managed 12 shots on target with 50% on target while Roma scored only three attempts out of 13, and it was nothing more than Dziko’s mistake in the first half. Add to that the fact that Roma’s only goal came through an ugly spin for Udinese and Paolo Fonseca may still have a hard time getting a good night’s sleep.

As we say a lot, winning is winning. Rome was in dire need of this product, but at the moment they were far from the end product and looked especially poor in the middle of the garden; Sure enough, something seems amiss between Pellegrini, Pedro, Mkhitaryan and Dzeko. Veretout does a great job managing Roma’s transition between defense and offense, but the rest of Rome’s offensive unit still appears to lack coherence and, in some cases, seem to be unsure of their respective roles.

Fortunately, Fonseca now has two weeks to resolve this before the club hosts Benevento after the break. Matters aside, Roma got exactly what they needed today: three undisputed points.

next one

An international break followed by a home game against Benevento on the 18th.