Serie A | Roma 2-1 Venezia: Local hero Pisilli rescues Giallorossi

Niccolò Pisilli and a deflected Bryan Cristante effort allowed Roma to overturn Venezia and scrape a morale-boosting victory under coach Ivan Juric.

The Giallorossi had mixed results under their new boss, beating Udinese and held 1-1 by Athletic Club in the Europa League midweek, but the fans continued to protest Daniele De Rossi’s dismissal and the Curva Sud was again silent for the opening 15 minutes.

Paulo Dybala was not fully fit, with Enzo Le Fée and Alexis Saelemaekers injured, but Lorenzo Pellegrini returned. Eusebio Di Francesco rescued his job with the first win of the season against Genoa last week. Alfred Duncan and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia returned, but Giorgio Altare and Bjarki Bjarkason were still out of action.

See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

It was a strong start from Venezia, as Mile Svilar flew in the third minute to palm away a Michael Svoboda scorcher from the edge of the area, then Gianluca Mancini and Svilar combined to prevent Joel Pohjanpalo and Gaetano Oristanio turning in the Francesco Zampano cross.

Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free kick tested Jesse Joronen after an awkward bounce, but Venezia took the lead when Gianluca Busio saw his strike come off the far post and Pohjanpalo was quickest to react on the rebound.

It was so nearly 2-0 in first half stoppages, as Svilar parried from Pohjanpalo and Gianluca Mancini made a desperate goal-line clearance to deny Oristanio’s follow-up.

Roma were jeered off the field at half-time and Manu Koné tested Joronen before Pellegrini’s curler flashed inches wide of the far post.

Venezia had the ball in the net again on 56 minutes with Ridgeciano Haps, but it didn’t count because Zampano was marginally offside when starting the run to roll across.

Oristanio had a massive chance to score when running clear through the centre, but Svilar stood his ground and managed to get a glove to the ball before the finish.

Nicolò Pisilli came on and had two big opportunities to equalise, nodding a pair of corners onto the roof of the net, while Dovbyk also fired wide and Ellertsson flung himself in the way of an Angelino strike from nine yards.

Roma got their equaliser with a stroke of luck, because the Bryan Cristante effort from distance took a huge deflection off Busio to loop up and over Joronen, under the crossbar.

They had been threatening with those Pisilli headers on corners and the third time was the charm on a Leandro Paredes set play, the Roma youth product’s first Serie A goal, having already scored in the Europa League.