Romelu Lukaku, Andrea Belotti and Niccolò Pisilli secured the victory over Sheriff, but it was not enough for Roma to avoid the Europa League play-offs.
2023/2024 UEFA Europa League
3-0
The Giallorossi knew snatching top spot was going to be extremely difficult, as they had to win and hope Slavia Prague lost to Servette, or get a victory by over four clear goals if their rivals were held to a draw. Paulo Dybala, Leonardo Spinazzola, Sardar Azmoun, Chris Smalling, Marash Kumbulla, Tammy Abraham, Rasmus Kristensen and suspended Evan Ndicka were unavailable.
In the opening minute, Rick Karsdorp flashed an angled drive across the face of goal when found unmarked at the back post by Romelu Lukaku.
It took just 10 minutes to break the deadlock, as Nicola Zalewski got down the left several times, on this occasion rolling across the six-yard box for Lukaku to tap in from close range. It was the Belgian’s sixth consecutive Europa League home tie in a row on target.
However, news filtered through that Slavia Prague were already leading Servette 3-0, rendering this result irrelevant.
Renato Sanches floated a ball over the top, allowing Zalewski to spring the offside trap and acrobatically flick it over the on-rushing goalkeeper with a cheeky lob. However, Andrea Belotti got the final touch practically on the line, so UEFA assigned the goal to him.
Mile Svilar had to rush off his line to deny the David Ankeye counter-attack and Houssem Aouar was yet another new muscular injury, replaced by Stephan El Shaarawy in the second half.
Lukaku drilled wide of the far post and Riccardo Pagano ballooned over after a well-worked move, but Roma showed the lack of threat by moving to an all-new back three of Karsdorp, Cristante and Edoardo Bove – none of them central defenders.
Youth academy product Niccolò Pisilli also tested the goalkeeper on the counter-attack and El Shaarawy blasted over from a Lukaku knockdown.
There was also time for Mattia Mannini to get his debut – he was born the day before Italy won the 2006 World Cup.
It was another youth player, Pisilli, who made it 3-0 with the last kick of the game on a Lukaku lay-off, the low strike taking a slight deflection on the way through to the far bottom corner.
Match Events
11' GOAL! Roma 1-0 Sheriff (Lukaku)
24' Yellow Card! Amine Talal booked
32' GOAL! Roma 2-0 Sheriff (Belotti)
50' CLOSE! Lukaku’s shot wide out
65' El Shaarawy's shot too straight
71' Niccolò Pisilli in,Belotti out
75' Yellow Card! Bove booked
Line-ups
Roma XI: Lukaku, Cristante, Belotti, D.Llorente, R.Sanches, Karsdorp, Zeki Çelik, Mile Svilar, Aouar, Nicola Zalewski, Edoardo Bove
Subs: Patricio, El Shaarawy, Paredes, Pellegrini, Martin Vetkal, Pietro Boer, Luigi Cherubini, Mattia Mannini, Riccardo Pagano, Niccolò Pisilli, João Costa, Matteo Giuseppe Plaia
Sheriff XI: Ricardinho, Maksym Koval, Cristian Tovar, Alejandro Artunduaga, Amine Talal, Konstantinos Apostolakis, João Paulo, Cedric Badolo, Jerome Ngom Mbekeli, Munashe Garananga, David Ankeye
Subs: Serghei Pascenco, Luvannor, Victor Straistari, Vinícius Paiva, Roman Novicov, Armel Zohouri, Berkay Vardar, Vlad Colis