Hermoso opens the scoring as Roma beat Sassuolo 3-0 and sit a point off Lazio

Roma beat Sassuolo 3-0 at the Olimpico on Saturday night: defender Mario Hermoso scored in the 27th minute, Sassuolo's Sebastian Walukiewicz put the ball into his own net in the 30th and attacker Rodrigo Mora added a third in the 58th. The win takes Roma to 27 points, one behind leaders Lazio, who visit Napoli at 12:30 on Sunday, and two clear of Inter, who host Como at 18:00.

Two goals in three minutes

Sassuolo, set up in a 3-5-2 by coach Alberto Aquilani, held out for almost half an hour. Then Hermoso carried the ball into the box, exchanged passes with Dutch forward Donyell Malen and hit a left-footed shot under the crossbar. Three minutes later Malen's shot from the edge of the area was deflected twice, by Sassuolo defender Jay Idzes and then by Walukiewicz, and ended up in the net. Sassuolo had a big chance to reopen the game in the 42nd minute, when Roma defender Leonardo Balerdi mistimed a challenge and Idzes, through on a bounce, sent a diagonal shot wide.

Roma kept creating after the break. In the 48th minute Roma's Matías Soulé went round goalkeeper Arijanet Muric one-on-one but, instead of shooting into the empty net from a tight angle, squared the ball for Malen, who could not finish it. Mora made it 3-0 in the 58th: he played a one-two with Malen, drifted to the right and finished with a diagonal shot at the far post. The match data counts 28 shots for Roma against six for Sassuolo, nine on target against one, and 12 corners against one. Sassuolo's only shot on target, from Nemanja Matic in the third minute, was pushed behind for a corner by Roma goalkeeper Devis Vásquez.

What it changes

Roma are unbeaten after 11 league games, with eight wins and three draws, and have scored 31 goals, the most in Serie A (Inter's 26 are next), while conceding 10. Roma have scored 15 in their last four league games: 3-3 at Napoli, 4-2 against Cagliari, 5-2 at Udinese and now 3-0 against Sassuolo. La Gazzetta dello Sport notes that in the last ten years only Atalanta of 2019-20, under Roma's current coach Gian Piero Gasperini, had reached 30 league goals after so few games.

The win came days after Roma lost 3-2 at Manchester United in the Champions League, having led 2-0, according to Tuttosport. Gasperini rejected the idea that the win was a response. "This team keeps giving confirmations, it doesn't need to give answers," he told Sky Sport, and he blamed the Manchester defeat on an absurd penalty. Asked about finishing second, he said: "Would I sign for second place? No. But it's nice to play this championship." He called Inter the favourites and said Roma can compete with everyone at the top, Lazio included.

Sassuolo's slide

For Sassuolo it was a fifth league defeat in a row: 4-2 at Frosinone, 2-0 at Como, 6-2 at home to Lazio, 4-2 at home to Fiorentina and now 3-0 at Roma, with 19 goals conceded across the five games. With 29 conceded in 11 games, the most in Serie A, they are 17th on eight points, one above Monza, who host Atalanta on Sunday. Aquilani, who came through Roma's youth system and played for the club, was facing Roma for the first time as a coach. "Today you saw too little in everything," he told DAZN, citing problems at the back since the summer, with injuries and other setbacks forcing constant changes. ANSA writes that his position is shaky ahead of the international break.

What comes next

Serie A pauses for the international break after Sunday's games. Roma visit Parma on Saturday 21 November at 18:00, the day Lazio host Lecce, and Sassuolo host Genoa on Sunday 22 November. Gasperini said he hopes to get his players back as he left them and that he dislikes losing them to international games of little consequence.