Paulo Dybala’s penalty wiped out an early Roger Ibanez own goal, but Roma dropped precious points thanks largely to Wladimiro Falcone heroics on Tammy Abraham.
Jose Mourinho was still without Leonardo Spinazzola and outcast Rick Karsdorp, while Nicolò Zaniolo was sold to Galatasaray this week. The hosts missed Youssef Maleh, Kastriot Dermaku and Marin Pongracic. When these sides met in October, Roma barely scraped a 2-1 win, despite Lecce having Morten Hjulmand sent off after just 23 minutes.
This time, the Salentini took the early lead when Rui Patricio fingertipped a long-range dipping Gallo strike over the bar, and from the resulting corner Federico Baschirotto’s diving header with the aid of a deflection off Roger Ibanez went in from six yards.
Wladimiro Falcone made a desperate save from point-blank range on Stephan El Shaarawy and on that corner it was flicked on for Chris Smalling, intercepted by Gabriel Strefezza’s arm. The referee pointed to the spot and Paulo Dybala converted, rolling into the near bottom corner.
Falcone got down for a fantastic one-handed save on Tammy Abraham’s angled drive after a give-and-go with Dybala, then again when Abraham tried to bend a low snooker-shot into the far bottom corner.
The second half started in the same vein, another fantastic Falcone fingertip save on Abraham’s glancing header from a Lorenzo Pellegrini free kick.
Strefezza ran a huge risk of a second yellow card for going in clumsily on Nemanja Matic’s ankle after 56 minutes, while Pellegrini blasted into the stands after a great Dybala pass.
Georginio Wijnaldum made his comeback and only second appearance in the Roma shirt after fracturing his tibia in August.
Lameck Banda wasted a couple of promising Lecce counter-attacks and then slipped at the crucial moment in the box, but Hjulmand was fortunate to only get a yellow card for his stoppage-time foul to bring down Dybala in midfield on the counter-attack.
Lecce 1-1 Roma
Ibanez og 7 (L), Dybala 17 (R)
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