A magnificent Matias Soulé free kick proved enough for Roma to secure a third consecutive Serie A away victory, but it’s a crisis now for 10-man Parma in the relegation zone.
The Giallorossi were still smarting from Thursday’s contentious Europa League play-off draw with FC Porto, where Paulo Dybala sustained a knee injury, and also had to rest players for the second leg. Devyne Rensch was injured and Bryan Cristante suspended, but Lucas Gourna-Douath and Assane Sala-Eddine started. The Ducali dropped into the bottom three after just one win and two draws in 10 rounds. Milan Djuric joined Valentin Mihaila, Gabriel Charpentier, Adrian Benedyczak, Mateusz Kowalski, Alessandro Circati and Yordan Osorio on the absentee list.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
Gianluca Mancini was decisive to prevent Ange-Yoan Bonny tapping in the Matteo Cancellieri roll across from the left, then the same player prodded onto the side-netting after a strong Cancellieri solo run.
Roma finally threatened and it made a big difference on the half-hour mark, as Matias Soulé was tripped when he ran onto the Eldor Shomurodov through ball. At first, the referee pointed to the spot, but VAR confirmed that the contact on his ankle was outside the penalty area, so the decision was changed to a red card for Giovanni Leoni.
Soulé made the most of it though, as he converted that free kick from the very edge of the box into a magnificent goal, managing to bend it over the wall and back down in time to nestle into the near top corner.
Roma assumed they had doubled their lead after the restart when Zion Suzuki parried the Soulé angled drive, then desperately reached back to claw the Salah-Eddine rebound out of the net, but goal-line technology confirmed the goalkeeper had somehow managed to stop the ball crossing over completely.
Suzuki also got down to fingertip the Lorenzo Pellegrini daisy-cutter round the base of the upright, while Soulé saw a left-foot curler swing wide and Shomurodov’s header was off target from substitute Angelino’s cross.
Parma had a couple of opportunities go to waste with Simon Sohm ballooning over from promising positions.
