Roma beat Genoa and regain fourth place PHOTO – Football

Roma-Genoa 3-1 at the Olimpico for the match that closes the 17th day of Serie A

GOL

ROMA-Genoa 1-0 In the 14th minute the Giallorossi took the lead through Soulè

ROMA-Genoa 2-0 In the 19th minute the home team doubled their lead with Kone

ROMA-Genoa 3-0 Al 31′ in gol Ferguson

Roma-GENOA 3-1 – In the 87th minute Ekhator shortens for the guests

Choirs, applause and an emotional video. Roma pays homage Daniele De Rossi who returns to the Olimpico for the first time in his career, but as an opponent. The club paid tribute to him by sending images of his life in the Giallorossi on the big screens of the stadium, followed by long applause from over 65 thousand fans during the announcement of the lineups. Before the kick-off the hug with Gasperini, but also with many of his former players, including Soul

THE MATCH

He dreamed it and imagined it different, but Daniele De Rossi’s return to the Olimpico was decidedly bitter. Not for the reception it found, but for the result, yes. Roma wins 3-1 against Genoa, ending 2025 with more points than anyone else in the calendar year and in fourth place in the standings in the current season, behind Inter, Milan and Naples, but above all overtaking Juventus.

Yet at the stadium there is a match within the match, precisely that of De Rossi. For the first time he finds himself on the other side, an opponent of a team he has served for over twenty years. And when the lights go out for the announcement of the lineups, the whistles at the opponents stop only to greet ‘a son of Rome’, as the Curva Sud called him in a historic choreography of a past derby. The club pays homage to him with an emotional video before the match, the fans scream his name and the applause for him far exceeds that for everyone else. Entering the pitch, however, De Rossi did not allow himself to be distracted, trying to keep his emotions out and postponing thanks to his former fans until the end of the match. After the match, then, he greets his old players one by one, with a walkway that ends up under the Curva Sud and in a stadium at his feet even if as an opponent. While in the first half he limits himself to thanking when the banner appears that reads: “This will always be your home, welcome back Daniele”. Then the match absorbs him and the first twenty minutes are a nightmare because Roma scores a one-two that knocks out Genoa.

First Soulè, triggered by an error from Vasquez, and then Koné, score the score one and two to zero. A start that facilitates a match in which the Giallorossi arrived with many absences, from those of El Aynaoui and Ndicka (playing in the Africa Cup of Nations) to those of Bailey and Pellegrini due to injury, as well as Baldanzi due to fever. This is why Ferguson still plays in attack, despite Gasperini’s ‘scouring’, while in defense Hermoso grits his teeth, struggling with groin pain. And on the half hour mark there was also glory for the Irish centre-forward, thanks to another mistake by Genoa who with Malinovskyi gave a ball to Soulé, whose shot deflected by Sommariva resulted in the former Brighton player’s second goal in the league (the fourth in total). At half-time, therefore, the score was 3-0 for Roma, but the deficit could have been even heavier if Koné had not had the 4-0 annulled for a stomp on the hand of the Genoa goalkeeper.

De Rossi complains about a missed penalty on Ostigard following a contact with Svilar, but the Var team confirms Di Bello’s choice from the field not to award the penalty. In the second half Roma managed and steered the ship to port with the only two negative notes remaining the 3-1 taken at the end with Ekhator and the substitution of Soulé for El Shaarawy. The Argentine stops due to a right knee problem which will be evaluated in the next few hours, with the hope within Trigoria that it is nothing serious because the success against Genoa opens a tour de force, with another eight matches in the month which will define Roma’s objectives. Genoa’s, however, remains clear: to try to save themselves and reverse course, already in the next direct clash against Pisa.

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