Roma only managed to break Sampdoria after a Jeison Murillo red card, with Gini Wijnaldum scoring one and earning a Paulo Dybala penalty, as they catch Inter in third place.
The Giallorossi were forced into numerous changes after back-to-back Serie A defeats, including the Derby della Capitale, as Bryan Cristante, Marash Kumbulla, Gianluca Mancini and Roger Ibanez were all suspended, plus Rick Karsdorp injured. Samp beat Verona before the break for international duty, but were still in penultimate place, with Bram Nuytinck sitting out a ban, Emil Audero, Koray Gunter, Abdelhamid Sabiri, Ignacio Pussetto, Manuel De Luca and Andrea Conti sidelined, plus Martin Turk suffering from flu.
It was an emotional touchline reunion between Dejan Stankovic and his Treble-winning Inter coach Jose Mourinho, the Portuguese returning after a two-game ban.
Stephan El Shaarawy and Michael Cuisance saw easy attempts smothered, while Tammy Abraham was booked after being fortunate to avoid an earlier yellow.
Rui Patricio was right behind the Manolo Gabbiadini free kick, but Ravaglia needed a tricky fingertip save on Diego Llorente’s header from a corner. Gini Wijnaldum also came close from a corner, though Chris Smalling got in the way.
Wijnaldum ran down the right onto a Nemanja Matic dinked ball over the top and his angled drive beat Ravaglia only to thump the far post.
Ravaglia came to the rescue with a fantastic double save, first on the Nicola Zalewski effort, then the Lorenzo Pellegrini rebound from close range.
Sampdoria went down to 10 men for a second Jeison Murillo bookable offence on Abraham, although it was the first yellow card that was a little harsh.
On the free kick, Smalling’s diving header forced another fine save from Ravaglia, but Roma did finally break through when Matic floated a ball over the top for Wijnaldum to spring the offside trap and nod into the ground from five yards.
The offside flag spared Spinazzola’s blushes after turning a free header clear from close range, while Dybala’s left-foot scorcher skimmed the far top corner.
Nonetheless, 10-man Samp continued to push, Medhi Leris firing a cross-shot into the side-netting and some tricky clearances on crosses late on.
Spinazzola’s solo effort prompted a fingertip save at the base of the near post, but on the resulting corner, Ravaglia brought down Wijnaldum for a penalty. Dybala converted after a stuttering run-up, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.
El Shaarawy rounded out the scoreline in stoppages with a wonderful first-time finish to sweep in the Ola Solbakken assist to the far bottom corner with the inside of the right boot.
Roma 3-0 Sampdoria
Wijnaldum 57 (R), Dybala pen 88 (R), El Shaarawy 94 (R)
Sent off: Murillo 52 (S)
Player statistic
| Tammy Abraham |  |
8' | ||
| 11' | |
Jeison Murillo | ||
| Leonardo Spinazzola | |
21' |
| 49' | |
Alessandro Zanoli | ||
| 52' |  |
Jeison Murillo | ||
| Georginio Wijnaldum (Assist: Nemanja Matic) |
 |
57' | ||
| Chris Smalling | |
60' | ||
| 68' | |
Flavio Paoletti | ||
| 70' | |
Harry Winks | ||
| Paulo Dybala |  |
88' | ||
| Stephan El Shaarawy (Assist: Ola Solbakken) |
|
90+4' |
Match statistic
