Roma defeated Sassuolo 3–0 at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, 7 November, reaching 27 points with a third consecutive Serie A victory. The league’s matchday report placed Gian Piero Gasperini’s team second, one point behind Lazio at the final whistle, while Sassuolo suffered a fifth straight defeat.

Mario Hermoso opened the scoring inside the area before a Donyell Malen shot led to Sebastian Walukiewicz’s own goal. Roma had already threatened through Leonardo Balerdi’s header, cleared off the line. Arijanet Muric later denied Balerdi and Matías Soulé to prevent the first-half margin growing further.

Sky’s match record dates the opening goals to the 27th and 30th minutes and Rodrigo Mora’s third to the 58th. Mora finished with a low diagonal strike from the edge of the area after Roma continued creating opportunities following the interval. The home side therefore added a second-half goal rather than relying solely on their early advantage.

Italian public broadcaster Rai frames the result as a domestic response to the European defeat in Manchester and identifies second place as provisional during the round. Roma’s practical achievement was to separate their league performance from the midweek setback, scoring three times and retaining a clean sheet. Sassuolo could not turn the need to stop their losing run into sustained attacking pressure that changed the contest.

Archival cover photograph: Stadio Olimpico in Rome; not from the current event. Photographer/creator: ildirettore. Image source and metadata; CC BY 3.0. Image date as recorded by source: Taken on 12 March 2014. Source file used without raster edits.