Hellas Verona 3, Roma 2: Recap & Match Highlights

We wouldn't go so far as to say expectations were high for Roma as they traveled north to square off against Hellas Verona in a pivotal round 11 fixture. Still, after squeaking past Torino on Thursday and with most of his squad fit and ready, Ivan Juric's side seemed poised to put their October misery behind them. While they didn't bowl over Torino earlier this week, a win today would have put Roma on the right foot and marked their first two-match winning streak this season.

In the earliest moments of today's fixture at the Stadio Bentegodi, Roma looked more aggressive, fluid, and direct, funneling play through French midfielder Manu Koné, who finally seems to have cemented his place in the starting lineup ahead of the much-maligned Bryan Cristante.

As great as Koné has been lately, the first half was all about Nicola Zalewski. A controversial starter himself, Zalewski appeared to blow the doors off the building when he rifled the ball past Lorenzo Montipo early in the match, only to see his strike immediately disallowed thanks to an offside call.

Unfortunately, Zalewski's story didn't end there. Moments later, Zalewski turned the ball over deep in Roma's defensive third, playing a lazy, looping ball directly to Verona forward Casper Tengstedt, who charged straight ahead into an empty Roma backline before slotting it past Svilar with ease.

Despite that blow, Roma soldiered on, continuing to press the issue and feed striker Artem Dovbyk through the middle of the pitch. And while he didn't level the match directly, Dovbyk indirectly created a scoring chance for Matías Soulé. After receiving the ball on the right edge of the area, Dovbyk expertly flicked the ball back to Soulé in the middle, who managed to hold off a defender in the box before flicking the ball to Pellegrini. While the Verona defense summarily blocked Pellegrini's shot, the ball soon found its way to Zalewski on the left side, who squared it back to Soulé in the middle of the box for the equalizer.

Roma's joy was shortlived, however, as Verona regained the lead in the 34th minute after Ondrej Duda picked out Giangiacomo Magnani from the corner, spotting the center-back among a thicket of Roma defenders at the near left post for a bang-bang goal.

Down a goal with 45 minutes to play, Roma's response was a mystery: Would they rally around the flag, storm back, and take all three points, or was the first half merely window-dressing for another Giallorossi collapse?

At first blush, it was the former, as Juric's side responded almost immediately, knotting the match at two apiece after Artem Dovbyk tapped home a Zeki Celik cross in the 53rd minute, giving the capital club a glimmer of hope down the stretch.

After 30 minutes of back-and-forth play, it seemed like, if nothing else, Roma would scrape a point out of another disappointing Sunday. In keeping with the theme of the season, the Giallorossi buckled at the worst possible moment, conceding a back-breaking goal in the 88th minute after Dailon Livramento muscled Evan Ndicka off the ball before setting up Abdou Harroui's match-winner.

Paulo Dybala came close to grabbing a stoppage-time equalizer, only to see his attempt skirt just wide of the post. However, thanks to the usual spate of individual errors and poor execution in attack, Roma limped off the pitch, losing three of their past five matches.

Final Thoughts

I mean, what else needs to be said? We're now in early November, and the Giallorossi have sunk to 11th place and could find themselves as low as 14th if Empoli topples Como on Monday. If this isn't proof enough to the Friedkins that Ivan Juric is in over his head, I'm not sure anything will convince them. Yes, Juric inherited an almost impossible task, but he's done very little to stake his case as the man for the job.

Will the Friedkins pull the plug or grin and bear it with Juric for another week?

Up Next

Roma returns to the Europa League on Thursday when they travel to Belgium to face Union St. Gilloise.