Serie A | Roma 1-0 Lecce: Vaz first goal keeps Giallorossi afloat

Robinio Vaz scored his first goal in the Roma jersey and it was just enough to defeat Lecce, thanks also to Mario Hermoso’s goal-line clearance.

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The Giallorossi had a disastrous couple of weeks, scraping one point from three Serie A rounds to slide down to sixth place, then on Thursday losing 4-3 to Bologna in extra time for Europa League Round of 16 elimination. Zeki Celik and Manu Koné joined long-term absentees Matias Soulé, Paulo Dybala, Artem Dovbyk and Evan Ferguson in the stands, with Wesley suspended after his controversial red card against Como. Lecce welcomed Lameck Banda back after breathing difficulties saw him stretchered off against Napoli, but Riccardo Sottil, Lassana Coulibaly, Medon Berisha, Francesco Camarda and Kialonda Gaspar missed out.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Wladimiro Falcone was tested at the near post in the opening minutes by a Lorenzo Pellegrini cross that took a double deflection, then made another save using his legs on Pellegrini’s angled drive.

Roma did have the ball in the net on 24 minutes when Nicolò Pisilli threaded an angled drive past Falcone into the far bottom corner, but Pellegrini was offside in the build-up.

Evan Ndicka nodded over from a corner, while Tiago Gabriel made a fantastic double tackle to first stop Malen inside the area, then block off the El Aynaoui follow-up effort.

Falcone fingertipped a Gianluca Mancini cross-shot over the bar, but the hosts lost Mancini at half-time to injury.

Lecce came out fighting for the restart, as Svilar struggled to parry a swerving long-range Ngom effort, and Tiago Gabriel nodded over from the resulting corner.

Robinio Vaz came off the bench and made an immediate impact with his first goal in the Roma jersey. Mario Hermoso got down the left and stood up a cross from the by-line for the ex-Olympique Marseille talent to nod in from a very tricky angle at the back post.

Sadik Fofana got into a good position only to scuff the finish wide under pressure from Ndicka, but Lecce had a huge double opportunity on 73 minutes.

First Konan N’Dri dribbled down the left and forced a save with Svilar’s leg at the near post, then the Santiago Pierotti diving follow-up header was desperately cleared off the line by Hermoso.

There was a huge cheer from the crowd as Angelino made his first Serie A appearance at the Stadio Olimpico since October, following a difficult battle with pneumonia.

Vaz also blasted over after a corner was knocked into his path, then Falcone made a sensational double reaction save from point-blank range, although it wouldn’t have counted due to offside.

Roma 1-0 Lecce

Vaz 57 (R)