Roma dominated, then suffered, and finally won. Their third Europa League win, the first at home in the super group, came against the league leaders. At the Olimpico, they won 2-1 against Midtjylland thanks to goals from El Aynaoui and El Shaarawy, giving the Giallorossi their third international win of the season, moving them to nine points and closing in on direct qualification.

There was also fear in the mix with Paulinho's late goal and Koné's injury, which worries the Giallorossi ahead of the Napoli match.

But in the first half, Gasperini surprised everyone by starting Paulo Dybala as a false nine. The Argentine returns after a three-week layoff due to a muscle injury he sustained on November 2nd against AC Milan, with the Giallorossi coach wanting to give him more than an hour of playing time ahead of Sunday's match against Napoli. This was a way to quickly regain the form he had reached before sustaining the injury during the penalty miss against Maignan.

The Argentine isn't the only new addition, however, as Daniele Ghilardi makes his European debut in defense. Deployed as a center-right midfielder, Gasperini moves Mancini to the left wing and Ndicka to the center, whose job is to contain Franculino, a striker sought by both Roma and AC Milan. But he doesn't make an impact in his minutes at the Olimpico, despite Simon Kjaer, now on the Midtjylland board, revealing that he spoke with Roma's sporting director, Ricky Massara, about the Guinean player before the game's kickoff. "I told him his price is high," the Danish manager quipped. "There are a lot of names being floated right now," his Giallorossi colleague replied. "But many aren't viable, and Midtjylland has a lot of interesting young players, not just Franculino."

Is this a closed chapter? At least for now, because the Giallorossi's attention is on the pitch, and a first half that ended 1-0 demonstrates the team's improvement. After seven minutes, El Aynaoui scored his first goal of the season, volleying home with a right-footed strike from Celik's pass. Pellegrini also had a go from outside the box, but only a deflection off Erlic prevented the second goal. There were concerns, however, as Koné was forced off in the first half with a cut and a severe knock to his right ankle. Two tackles by Diao between the 7th and 25th minutes forced the Frenchman to leave the pitch, limping to the locker room. He will undergo further tests in the coming hours, but in the meantime, Cristante will replace him.

Midtjylland, at the start of the second half, attempted to remedy the situation by bringing on Osorio and Brumado for Gogorza and Bravo, but the best chances still fell to Roma: first with Soulé, whose left-footed shot went just wide, and then Dybala, whose second goal was denied by Olafsson's save. After the hour mark, however, the Giallorossi seemed to be running out of steam, and Wesley's errors became numerous. Gasperini then tried to bring on Ferguson and El Shaarawy, then Bailey and Tsimikas. These choices led to a 2-0 lead with the "Pharaoh's" goal, leaving the match seemingly over, only for Paulinho to quickly rekindle the deadlock. In the final minutes, El Shaarawy even had room to hit the crossbar, before the final whistle signaled the start of the celebrations. Now Roma's minds could turn to Napoli.

(Unioneonline)

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