Henrikh Mkhitaryan was in the right place at the right time to give Roma a precious victory away to Sampdoria, further consolidating fifth place.
The Giallorossi used the same XI that crushed Lazio 3-0 in the Derby della Capitale, although this time Nicolò Zaniolo was injured rather than dropped, joining Leonardo Spinazzola and Jordan Veretout on the absentee list. Samp missed Sebastian Giovinco, Manolo Gabbiadini and Mikkel Damsgaard, with Albin Ekdal not fully fit either.
Roger Ibanez nodded just over from an early corner, while Francesco Caputo forced a save from Rui Patricio on Stefano Sensi’s through ball.
Roma broke the deadlock when Nicola Zalewski pulled across from the left for Tammy Abraham, Morten Thorsby intercepted, but could only prod it back into the path of Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the tap-in.
Abraham got to a Bartosz Bereszynski back-pass before Emil Audero, but then could only find the side-netting from close range.
Sabiri fired straight at Rui Patricio on a Tommaso Augello cross, while Abraham’s effort was deflected wide off Omar Colley.
Fabio Quagliarella saw his strike take a big deflection off Chris Smalling to whistle wide with Rui Patricio beaten.
Lorenzo Pellegrini very sneakily got himself booked for time-wasting in stoppages, meaning he’ll be suspended against Salernitana and rested ahead of Napoli.
Sampdoria 0-1 Roma
Mkhitaryan 27 (R)
Team finally clicking . Mancini is untouchable. Zalewski for Spinna and Crisante for Zhaka and this team can come top four next year with playing time..
Diawara, Perez, Shomurodov, Niles, Vina, ELS all need to go.
Keep Kumbulla, Gyan , Zalewski, Bove
Zaniolo…if the right price came in
they are slowly climbing up the league. Keep this momentum Roma and fourth could still be achieved.