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Malen strikes again as Roma maintain perfect start to Serie A season

Malen celebrates his goal
Malen celebrates his goalČTK / imago sportfotodienst / Nderim Kaceli

AS Roma continued their 100% start to the domestic season, defeating Torino 2-0 at Stadio Olimpico di Torino to make it nine successive Serie A wins stretching back to last season.

As expected, given their recent form, Roma made a strong start, and Donyell Malen should have scored when a cross completely deceived Lucas Perri, but he somehow managed to head wide.

Matías Soule and Bryan Cristante also shot narrowly past the post, before Malen had a goal disallowed for offside.

Momentum
MomentumFlashscore

Torino grew into the first half, though, and Eray Comert struck over before Rolando Mandragora – who netted their opening goal in their 2-1 win against Fiorentina last weekend – forced Mile Svilar into a save.

However, Roma quickly regained momentum, and Paulo Dybala headed just wide, before the Giallorossi made the breakthrough they had been threatening after some poor Torino defending.

It was no surprise that Malen got himself on the scoresheet again, sliding in the rebound after his original effort was parried to break the deadlock for the ninth time in as many Serie A appearances.

Roma continued their dominance into the second half, with Nahuel Molina shooting inches wide inside its opening 10 minutes.

It then came as a surprise to see Malen taken off before the hour mark, and Torino seemed to draw encouragement from that as Giovanni Simeone forced Svilar into a couple of decent saves.

Roma’s number one also had to be alert to stop Mandragora’s free-kick, as the game remained interesting heading into the latter stages with only a one-goal advantage.

Serie A’s top scorers maintained a threat of their own, though, and Perri was soon called into action again by Molina as he expertly stopped his rocket from the edge of the box.

The Leeds United loanee then tipped over Gianluca Mancini’s header from close range, as Roma threatened to put the game to bed.

And eventually they did find a second goal in stoppage time through Niccolo Pisilli, who was first to react to a loose ball in the box, prodding home to seal the points.

Match stats
Match statsFlashscore

As a result, the Giallorossi return to the top of the table at this early stage, as they close in on a club-record 11 successive Serie A victories.

Torino have now lost four of their last five matches as a result (W1), and perhaps more concerningly, Il Toro have now failed to keep a clean sheet in nine league games.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Donyell Malen (AS Roma)

See all the stats from the match here