Roma came back from the Matheus Henrique opener to beat 10-man Sassuolo, as Rasmus Kristensen won the Paulo Dybala penalty and saw his winner deflected in.
The Giallorossi were coming off a disappointing 1-1 draw away to Servette, which left them almost certainly going into the Europa League play-offs, with Chris Smalling, Tammy Abraham and Marash Kumbulla long-term absentees. Mattia Viti, Pedro Obiang and Agustin Alvarez missed out, though the Neroverdi ended their six-round winless streak in a 4-3 thriller with Empoli.
Jose Mourinho caused controversy in yesterday’s press conference by suggesting he was ‘worried’ about referee Matteo Marcenaro and the VAR.
Andrea Consigli got his fingertips to the Paulo Dybala daisy-cutter from outside the box, but it was Sassuolo who scored with their first real chance.
Matheus Henrique saw his first attempt charged down, then Domenico Berardi scuffed his angled drive so badly that it turned into an accidental assist for the Brazilian to tap in at the back post.
Consigli flew to palm a wonderful Dybala finish out of the top corner, taken first-time from the edge of the area on the Romelu Lukaku lay-off.
Kristian Thorstvedt turned a defender only to prod the weak finish straight at Rui Patricio, but Mourinho threw on extra striker Sardar Azmoun for the second half.
Roma really should’ve equalised on 53 minutes when Dybala allowed Lukaku to spring the offside trap, but the Belgian fluffed his lines and fired straight at Consigli one-on-one.
Sassuolo were also wasteful on the counter, as Pinamonti and Armand Lauriente both went for the same ball and collided, while Azmoun’s chest and volley was well wide.
Daniel Boloca lunged into a studs-up tackle on Leandro Paredes and caught the Roma man on the inside of the ankle. At first it was a yellow card, changed to red following the VAR on-field review.
Berardi was booked for a late challenge on Stephan El Shaarawy and will be suspended for the Neroverdi’s next match with Cagliari.
Rasmus Kristensen tried to dribble between two Sassuolo defenders and went down under a mistimed Martin Erlic challenge, so the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Consigli almost got there, but Dybala placed it right into the near bottom corner to equalise.
Kristensen made a big difference off the bench and also rode his luck, because the snapshot from just inside the area seemed to be going wide until a massive deflection off Ruan Tressoldi looped the ball up and into the far top corner.
Sassuolo almost equalised down to 10 men, Uros Racic ballooning over from the edge of the box after a misplaced Paredes pass, while Kristensen set up Leonardo Pellegrini to sting Consigli’s gloves in stoppages.
Sassuolo 1-2 Roma
Matheus Henrique 25 (S), Dybala pen 76 (R), Kristensen 82 (R)
Sent off: Boloca 62 (S)
Player statistic
| Matheus Henrique (Assist: Domenico Berardi) |
 |
25' |
| Kristian Thorstvedt |  |
55' | ||
| Daniel Boloca |  |
63' | ||
| Domenico Berardi | |
69' | ||
| 76' |  |
Paulo Dybala | ||
| 78' | |
Rasmus Kristensen | ||
| 82' | |
Rasmus Kristensen (Assist: Paulo Dybala) | ||
| Matheus Henrique | |
83' | ||
| Martin Erlic | |
90+3' |
Match statistic
