By Joshua Abbas-Owusu
(Photo by Football Italia)
Roma beat a sluggish Zorya Luhansk side 4 –0 in a much-needed victory to bolster their qualification hopes from Group C.
Roma knew they had to get a positive result today and that showed as the home side started off with great intensity. The hosts were nearly rewarded for their efforts following some fine work by former Manchester United and Arsenal man Henrikh Mkhitaryan who fired just wide after being teed up by highly rated Italian ace Nicolo Zaniolo. Some excellent work down the wings for Roma resulted in a cross that Tammy Abraham would have been disappointed not to slot away.
A fierce shot from Ukrainian international Sergiy Bulesta gave Zorya their first corner of the match. This resulted into a nice training ground drill that forced Portugal’s number one Rui Patricio into his first save of the match. Moments later A devastating counter attack led by Zaniolo and his pass found Stephen El Shaawary whose brilliant pinpoint pass picked out Carlos Perez who kept his composure to slot the ball past the Zorya goalkeeper. Roma were causing plenty of issues on the right wing with The Italian wonderkid at the heart of the problems, cutting in from the right and unleashing a powerful shot, only for the keeper to make a brilliant save.
Zaniolo’s hard work finally paid off as Jordan Veretout ran through the centre of the midfield who then passed the ball into the path of Zaniolo whose arrowed shot hit the left-hand corner beating the helpless goalkeeper. Some more excellent play again from Perez who drove into the penalty box only to be hauled down by Vladyslav Kabaev inside the area, Veretout stepped up and missed the resulting penalty, that being his second miss from the spot of the season after firing wide during the first one against Juventus earlier in the season. Some more excellent play again from Perez who drove into the penalty box only to be hauled down by Vladyslav Kabaev inside the area, Veretout stepped up and missed his second penalty of the season.
A great pass down the line from Rick Karsdorp into Zaniolo resulted into him speeding into the box and unselfishly laying the ball into former Chelsea striker Abraham for his 7th goal of the season and his 3rd goal in 5 Europa Conference League games this season.
Abraham should have doubled his tally following some clever work by Perez when the Spanish winger managed to shimmy his way past two Zorya defenders and pass it into El Shaarwaay ,the Italian then found Abraham whose shot went wide of the post much to the delight of the Zorya goalkeeper. However, Abraham could not be denied a second goal as Mkhitaryan's deflected attempt found the England striker improvised brilliantly with an overhead kick which outwitted the keeper and nestled into the net for his 8th goal in all competitions this season.
The win leaves Roma second in their group by 10 points. a point behind Norwegian outfit Bodø/Glimt who are the group leaders. The Italian side's last game of the group stage will come against Bulgarian outfit CSKA Sofia who sit bottom of Group C this is a must win game for the Seria A outfit as a win all but guarantees them qualification for the next round.
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