Lorenzo Pellegrini’s early penalty proved enough for Roma to take all three points from Dejan Stankovic’s Sampdoria and go into fourth place.
The Giallorossi held Real Betis to a 1-1 draw in Seville on Thursday, but here knew a third consecutive Serie A victory would put them clear in fourth place, leapfrogging Lazio and Udinese. Paulo Dybala, Zeki Celik, Marash Kumbulla, Georginio Wijnaldum and Ebrima Darboe were injured. Rock bottom Samp missed Jeison Murillo, Harry Winks and Manuel De Luca, having picked up a point on the debut of new coach Stankovic, here facing his mentor Jose Mourinho.
Although he was suspended in the Europa League and therefore well-rested, Nicolò Zaniolo was still benched in favour of the new double-striker partnership.
It was the worst possible start for Samp, as Alex Ferrari with a wide arm deflected Tammy Abraham’s cross with his fingertips, so Lorenzo Pellegrini fired the penalty into the near top corner. It was a good way to mark the captain’s 200th Serie A appearance.
Pellegrini’s header on an Abraham cross was straight at the goalkeeper, then his sensational cross-field pass to release Stephan El Shaarawy only earned Roma a corner.
After the restart, Nicola Murru managed to hook an improbable ball back across the face of goal from the by-line, but none of his teammates were ready for the tap-in.
Abraham flicked on a pass first time to send Andrea Belotti through, but Emil Audero rushed off his line to parry using his legs.
There was controversy on 63 minutes when El Shaarawy used his out-stretched arm to deflect a cross heading to Valerio Verre just outside the penalty area. Because it was outside, VAR could not intervene, but the referee missed what should’ve been a free kick and a yellow card. Stankovic was booked for his protests.
Zaniolo came off the bench and promptly forced a save with his angled drive, though he was offside too. He did better when shrugging off Omar Colley, taking on another defender and drawing out Audero, but the finish flashed across the face of goal and inches wide.
Belotti turned off target from six yards, as Bartosz Bereszynski did just enough to put him off from Bryan Cristante’s cross.
Zaniolo had the ball in the net during stoppages as he ran onto a Rick Karsdorp pass to go around Audero, but started from an offside position.
Abdelhamid Sabiri nodded a Bereszynski cross wide under pressure.
Sampdoria 0-1 Roma
Pellegrini pen 9 (R)