A strong performance from Udinese wasn’t enough to halt Roma’s recent return to form, as goals from Cengiz Under and Diego Perotti secured a 2-0 victory for the Giallorossi on Saturday.
The 20-year-old entered the contest with three goals in his past two matches, and he added to that with a sensational strike in the 70th minute, collecting just outside the penalty area and firing into the far bottom corner.
Perotti added a second in injury time, extending Roma’s win streak to three matches, along with vaulting them past Inter for third in the standings ahead of the Nerazzurri’s match with Genoa later in the day.
Both sides exchanged early chances. First, Under’s deflected shot went just wide of the mark, while Alisson was forced to clear the lines after Juan Jesus’ back pass was nearly collected and fired home by Stipe Perica.
The Turk was in the thick of the action, and nearly won a penalty for the Lupi. His cross connected with Ali Adnan’s arm, but after consulting VAR, referee Marco Di Bello opted not to award a spot kick given how close the Udinese man was to the ball, and that he had his arm across his chest.
Udinese came close to opening the scoring via Seko Fofana’s shot from distance, but his effort just whistled past the woodwork.
The same scenario played out on the other end thanks to Stephan El Shaarawy, meaning the two sides headed into half-time at 0-0.
Perica and Alisson continued their battle after the restart. The Croatian collected Rodrigo De Paul’s throw in, cut past Federico Fazio, but was once again denied by the onrushing Roma goalkeeper.
Edin Dzeko slipped through the Udinese backline, only to fire his attempt wide of the near post, but it was a sign of things to come as the deadlock was broken soon after.
Under collected the ball just outside the Udinese box, and the youngster fired a stunning strike past Bizzarri into the far bottom corner to make it 1-0 with just 20 minutes remaining.
Udinese’s best chance to level came from a Kevin Strootman mistake, but De Paul’s strike was once again denied by an alert Alisson.
Proceedings were wrapped up in injury time when Gregoire Defrel stripped Fofana of the ball, and it eventually reached the feet of Perotti, who slipped the ball past Bizzarri to secure a 2-0 result for the Lupi.
Next up for Roma is a tough home match against AC Milan, while Udinese travel for a battle with Sampdoria.
