Nicolo Zaniolo’s first away goal for 10-man Roma set them on their way to a dominant 4-0 victory over Udinese at the Dacia Arena in Serie A on Wednesday.
The young midfielder pounced on a mistake at the back to break the deadlock early on, and despite Federico Fazio being sent off with only 30 minutes gone, the Giallorossi turned the screw in the second half.
An early Chris Smalling header was soon followed up by a well-worked Justin Kluivert effort, before Aleksandr Kolarov completed the rout from the penalty spot. Coming into the match on the back of a 7-1 defeat to Atalanta, Udinese rarely threatened and saw a miserable week become even more forgettable.
Roma’s early pressure soon told as Udinese were caught out at the back, with Samir missing a simple ball over the top from Kolarov, allowing Zaniolo to get in behind and coolly slot home.
The young Italian international was in again minutes later as Kluivert threaded him through, but after stepping away from Samir, Zaniolo could only drill wide.
With just over half an hour played, the match was turned on it’s head by an extremely soft decision to dismiss Fazio. Stepping across to cut out Stefano Okaka on the edge of the box, the Argentine was the last man but appeared to do little more than lean into his opponent to tackle, but received his marching orders nonetheless.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Roma dominated in the second half and were soon out of sight. Smalling met a loose ball from a corner to double the lead shortly after the restart, and just moments later victory was secured.
Snatching the ball in their own box, the Lupi pushed forward with one-touch passing before Javier Pastore’s wonderfully-weighted through ball released Kluivert in the box and the Dutchman rifled home.
The thrashing was completed on the hour mark, as Becao handled in the box and Kolarov found the bottom corner from the penalty spot.
