Roma beat 2-0 Cagliari at the Stadio Olimpico in Serie A on Sunday afternoon to maintain their 100 per cent win record at the start of the season.
Early first half goals from Mattia Destro and Alessandro Florenzi were enough to see the capital club go level at the top of the table with Juventus as Cagliari failed to trouble the home side on Zdenek Zeman’s return to his former side.
The home side started the brighter and created the games first chance after three minutes when a fine run by Gervinho set up Destro in the box and the striker turned well but his tame shot failed to trouble Alessio Cragno in the Cagliari goal.
It didn’t take long for Roma’s early dominance to pay off as on the ten minute mark, once again a Gervinho run and pass played Florenzi in down the right and his perfect cross found Destro who finished well.
Amazingly just two minutes later it was 2-0, as the Cagliari off-side trap failed miserably with Francesco Pisano failing to step-up, as a ball over the top from Seydou Keita found Gervinho onside, and his slide rule pass to Florenzi was perfect and the young Roman fired the ball home past Cragno as he celebrated by running into the crowd to hug his grandmother.
The Giallorossi continued to completely dominate possession and it wasn’t until the 42 minute that the Rossoblu created their best chance before half-time as a good cross from Danilo Avelar down the left was headed well wide from Victor Ibarbo who should have done better.
The home side began the second half on top without making any clear chances and it wasn’t until midway through the half that a fine run by Maicon down the right saw the full-back fire a shot at Cragno’s goal but it flew a couple of feet over the bar.
Shortly after Cagliari substitute Sameule Longo took a pot-shot at the Roma goal but it deflected out for a corner which was cleared by the home defence.
From the resulting clearance Maicon attacked down the right and sent a great cross into the box but the ball just went over the head of the incoming Destro and out for a throw-in.
With ten minutes remaining Longo was again the only bright spark in the away attack as a fine shot from the edge of the box made Morgan De Sacitis tip the ball over the bar.
Both sides looked tired towards the end of the game and it will be Roma boss Rudi Garcia who will be the happier of the coaches as his side overcame a tough week of three game in nine days to see his side go level top of Serie A with Juventus on nine points.
Roma now face a trip to Parma on Wednesday, while Cagliari face Torino at the Stadio Sant’Elia on the same night.
