Europa League | Roma 3-0 SC Braga: Pellegrini inspires rout

Lorenzo Pellegrini, Saud Abdulhamid and Mario Hermoso took Roma to a morale-boosting 3-0 victory over 10-man SC Braga, revitalising their Europa League ambitions.

The Giallorossi got their first win under Claudio Ranieri at the weekend, beating Lecce 4-1, but Artem Dovbyk and Leandro Paredes were struggling with flu symptoms, plus Bryan Cristante injured. The big news was Lorenzo Pellegrini’s first appearance since Claudio Ranieri’s debut against Napoli on November 24.

It proved an inspired choice, because Pellegrini opened the scoring when Nicola Zalewski got down the left, cut back to commit two defenders and rolled across for the captain to sweep home low from the edge of the area. Pellegrini ran to the touchline for an emotional hug with Ranieri.

Pellegrini nearly got a second for Roma a few minutes later, his header steered onto the top of the crossbar, then an angled drive was deflected inches wide and Matias Soule’ curled just past the post too.

Matheus had to make three big saves in quick succession on the deflected Pellegrini curler from the edge of the area, an Evan N’Dicka header on the resulting corner, then fingertipping a long-range Gianluca Mancini strike over the bar.

Dovbyk came on for the restart and Roma immediately doubled their lead when Manu Koné shrugged off a tackle and threaded through for Saud Abdulhamid to run onto it, blasting into the roof of the net from a tricky angle. It was the Saudi winger’s first goal in the Giallorossi jersey.

Mancini had the ball in the net soon after, but was offside when redirecting the N’Dicka effort following a free kick. Zalewski also sprung the offside trap and tried to generously set up Dovbyk, who collided with teammate Pellegrini.

Matheus continued to keep the Roma scoreline down with saves on Soulé during the counter and a Mats Hummels header on the resulting Pellegrini corner.

Soulé was incredibly wasteful, ballooning over first-time when set up by a strong Koné run from midfield.

Abdulhamid ran onto a long ball to spring the offside trap and Matheus made a mess of rushing out to deny him, handling well outside the penalty area for a red card.

It was nearly 3-0 for Roma when Stephan El Shaarawy saw his angled drive cleared off the line by Zalazar, while the substitute goalkeeper made a double save on Dovbyk’s solo move and the Zalewski follow-up.

They did get their third in stoppages, as Mario Hermoso was ready to turn in the rebound after a parried N’Dicka strike from the edge of the area.