Matias Soulé made historical past with the quickest ever Serie A aim scored by Roma, 22 seconds proving sufficient to get all three factors towards a decimated Empoli.
The Giallorossi have been contemporary from a dramatic last-gasp and gained eight of their final 11 aggressive matches, however with the second leg arising on Thursday in Bilbao, needed to rotate the squad with Paulo Dybala and Zeki Celik left at residence . Empoli knocked Juventus out of the Coppa Italia to succeed in the semi-final, but scraped solely three attracts from the final 12 Serie A video games. Youssef Maleh added to the absentee record with Tino Anjorin, Ardian Ismajli, Mattia Viti, Ola Solbakken, Nicolas Haas, Szymon Zurkowski, Tyronne Ebuehi, Saba Sazonov and Pietro Pellegri.
It was the right begin for Roma, taking the lead inside 22 seconds. Lorenzo Colombo had given it away in midfield, Anass Salah-Eddine’s cross from the left went previous Lorenzo Pellegrini, so Soulé took a contact simply inside the world and fired in along with his left foot. It was the fastest-ever Roma aim on document in Serie A.
Mile Svilar obtained all the way down to palm the Mattia De Sciglio daisy-cutter around the submit, whereas Pellegrini drilled simply extensive on an Eldor Shomurodov help.
It ought to’ve been 2-0 on 36 minutes when Pellegrini did so effectively to manage a difficult ball and lay it off for Shomurodov, who went for energy over precision and smashed his strike onto the crossbar from 9 yards.
Moments later, Manu Kone sprung the offside entice on a Soulé by means of ball and dribbled round Marco Silvestri, solely to hit the surface of the close to submit from a difficult angle.
Shomurodov wasted one other golden alternative by nodding a Soulé cross at Silvestri’s legs from point-blank vary.
After the restart, Silvestri made a difficult one-handed save on Pellegrini’s header into the bottom from Saud Abdulhamid’s cross, whereas Tommaso Baldanzi examined the goalkeeper towards his former membership.
Artem Dovbyk may’ve sealed it in stoppages when operating onto a Baldanzi slide-rule go, however Silvestri was alert sufficient to stay up a hand and parry the dinked end.
Empoli threatened with the final kick of the sport, a Christian Kouame header skimming the upright.
Empoli 0-1 Roma
Soulé 1 (R)
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