Serie A | Roma 5-0 Parma: Dybala inspires magic manita

Roma hope they have finally found their feet with a 5-0 demolition of Parma, including a Paulo Dybala brace and Alexis Saelemaekers volley.

The Giallorossi lost 2-0 at Como, then crushed Sampdoria 4-1 in the Coppa Italia midweek, but Mats Hummels and Gianluca Mancini returned to bolster the defence with only Bryan Cristante still out. Parma were coming off back-to-back defeats, missing Nahuel Estevez, Adrian Bernabé, Mateusz Kowalski, Gabriel Charpentier, Alessandro Circati, Lautaro Valenti and Yordan Osorio.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Ange-Yoan Bonny sprung the offside trap on a Simon Sohm through ball to drill wide after just 130 seconds, while Artem Dovbyk fired off target from seven yards on the Angelino pull-back.

Dybala ran onto the Dovbyk back-heel flick moments later and was tripped by an outstretched Botond Balogh leg, so La Joya converted the resulting penalty.

The second goal was another well-worked move, as Angelino floated a cross to the far upright for the splendid right-foot Alexis Saelemaekers volley, although Zion Suzuki was weak on his near post.

Parma hit back with a Hernani scorcher from distance that Mile Svilar flew to palm onto the crossbar at the near top corner.

Emanuele Valeri’s screamer also skimmed the bar and Simon Sohm prodded wide from five yards on the Pontus Almqvist assist, while Suzuki parried an El Shaarawy finish with his chest at the near post.

Roma added a third after the restart when the Saelemaekers shot took a deflection off Dovbyk and found Dybala ready to tap in at the far post, with VAR confirming all of them had managed to avoid the offside trap.

It could’ve been a hat-trick for Dybala had he not slipped and fallen on the ball, while Drissa Camara’s looping long-range effort bounced off the top of the crossbar.

Valentin Mihaila barged the lively Saelemaekers over for another penalty, which this time was converted by Leandro Paredes.

Having had several wasted opportunities, Dovbyk finally got his goal too, cushioning it over the line from a couple of yards from a delicate Dybala dinked assist.

Dybala shunned the hat-trick when Dovbyk was tackled by Hernani and still managed to roll it across for his teammate, the Argentine ballooning over the bar. Curiously, this was a game where Claudio Ranieri made no substitutions, but Svilar kept the clean sheet with a low one-handed save on Dennis Man.

Roma 5-0 Parma

Dybala pen 8, 51 (R), Saelemaekers 13 (R), Paredes pen 74 (R), Dovbyk 83 (R)

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