Serie A | Lecce 0-4 Roma: Malen on fire and first for Mora
Roma put in another dominant performance with Donyell Malen netting twice, Matias Soulé and the first for Rodrigo Mora to conquer Lecce 4-0.
The visitors had the perfect start to their season by crushing Fiorentina 4-0 with a Donyell Malen hat-trick, all from Paulo Dybala assists. New signings Rodrigo Mora, Nahuel Molina, Leonardo Balerdi and Marten de Roon were on the bench, but Robinio Vaz, Neil El Aynaoui and Jan Ziolkowski left in the last 24 hours. Evan Ndicka sustained an adductor injury in the warm-up, replaced by Daniele Ghilardi. Lecce also opened the campaign with a 2-0 victory away to Venezia, welcoming Ivan Ilic, Ali Dembele and Amar Fatah to the squad, but moved to five at the back.
It took just three minutes to break the deadlock, as Lecce made a complete hash of clearing out from the back, Kialonda Gaspar passing it straight to Malen to drill into the net relatively undisturbed.
Soulé fired straight at the goalkeeper on the Manu Kone assist from the by-line, but there was more suicidal defending when Gaspar passed it straight to Wesley out of defence, who pulled it back from the left for Malen to dink it past Wladimiro Falcone at the near post.
That means Malen has five goals in his first two games of the season, and 19 in a total 20 in the Italian League.
Moments later Roma had a third, as Dybala found Malen, who generously laid it off for Soulé from the edge of the area, his first shot parried by Falcone, but the Argentine turning in the rebound.
Falcone denied a Malen hat-trick with a tricky save from close range after a give and go with Dybala, while the first Lecce chance came on 38 minutes with Willem Geubbels running onto the Santiago Pierotti through ball to test Mile Svilar.
Soulé bent the dangerous finish inches wide with the inside of the right foot, as did Malen when sent clear through the centre by Dybala in first half stoppages.
The tactical experiment was a failure, so Lecce made two changes at the break and returned to four at the back.
The gaps remained and Malen scuffed his finish after cutting inside a defender, but more bad news for Lecce, as Geubbels turned his ankle very badly and had to come off.
Lecce nearly got one back from a chaotic set play when it was prodded onto the upright by Gaspar, but Mario Hermoso acrobatically cleared off the line.
Moments later, Dybala should’ve scored on the counter-attack, only to balloon over when clear on goal.
Roma did get their fourth with Rodrigo Mora scoring his first for the club. The substitute kept calm when an initial Nahuel Molina cross was charged down and Gianluca Mancini rolled across for the Portuguese talent to control and sweep home from 10 yards.
Dybala curled just over from the edge of the area, while Ghilardi made a crucial defensive header to stop Nikola Stulic nodding in the N’Dri cross. N’Dri also fired wide when running at Hermoso to cut inside from the right.
Lecce 0-4 Roma
Malen 4, 23 (R), Soulé 25 (R), Mora 65 (R)
