Roma pushed past Udinese with Lorenzo Pellegrini’s first goal from open play in 560 days in a game of two missed penalties to go three points clear of Milan in third place and five ahead of Inter.
The Giallorossi were coming off Thursday’s 1-0 Europa League quarter-final defeat to Feyenoord and stretched thin, missing Paulo Dybala and Rick Karsdorp, with Tammy Abraham and Ola Solbakken only fit for the bench after dislocating their shoulders. The Friulani left Beto at home with flu symptoms, joining injured Gerard Deulofeu and Enzo Ebosse, while Destiny Udogie could start days after crashing his car.
Lazar Samardzic curled off target and tested Rui Patricio with a free kick, but Roma had a big chance when a free kick was knocked back and forth until Gianluca Mancini’s header was palmed out from under the bar by Marco Silvestri.
During that chaotic move, Bryan Cristante clashed heads with Isaac Success, forcing play to stop for several minutes while they were both patched up.
Wijnaldum stung Silvestri’s gloves from a tricky angle and on the resulting corner, Andrea Belotti’s header struck a raised Roberto Pereyra arm. Although the header was going wide anyway, it was still a penalty on the VAR review. Having missed a spot-kick on Thursday against Feyenoord, Lorenzo Pellegrini left it to Cristante, who peering out from under a bandage fired his effort against the upright, but Edoardo Bove was quickest to the rebound.
Walace saw his daisy-cutter deflected just wide and Silvestri got down for a fine one-handed save on Pellegrini’s viciously dipping free kick.
Pellegrini marked his 100th game as captain of Roma with a much-needed morale-boosting goal, as Belotti broke down the left, cut inside and set up the midfielder for a smart first touch and sweep past on-rushing Silvestri. He had not found the net since January, in Serie A from open play not since October 2021 and his confidence was badly affected by that penalty miss in Rotterdam.
Gini Wijnaldum went off complaining of dizziness after a knock to the head and Udinese also received a penalty for handball, Mancini charging down the Sandi Lovric strike with his arm. Pereyra, who had caused the first penalty, stepped up and saw his relatively weak effort saved by Rui Patricio.
Abraham came off the bench and sealed the 3-0 scoreline in stoppages with a glancing header into the near top corner on Leonardo Spinazzola’s cross.
In a weekend where all the teams who played in Europe then dropped points, Roma were the only ones to buck the trend.
Roma 3-0 Udinese
Bove 37 (R), Pellegrini 56 (R), Abraham 91 (R)
Missed penalty: Cristante 37 (R), Pereyra 68 (U)
Player statistic
| Bryan Cristante |  |
37' | ||
| Edoardo Bove |  |
37' | ||
| 37' |  |
Roberto Pereyra | ||
| 40' | |
Isaac Success | ||
| 45+4' | |
Kingsley Ehizibue |
| Lorenzo Pellegrini (Assist: Andrea Belotti) |
|
55' | ||
| Gianluca Mancini | |
68' | ||
| 69' | |
Roberto Pereyra | ||
| Tammy Abraham (Assist: Leonardo Spinazzola) |
|
90+2' | ||
| 90' | |
Florian Thauvin |
Match statistic
