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Artem Dovbyk’s goal and a series of fantastic Mile Svilar saves allowed Roma to beat Fiorentina and stake their case for a top four finish under Claudio Ranieri.
This was a head-to-head for teams in the fight for a top four finish, so with the season over for Paulo Dybala, the Giallorossi used the same XI that beat Inter last week. The Viola rotated between legs of the Conference League semi-final with Real Betis, bringing back Moise Kean with ex-Roma man Nicoló Zaniolo, but Luca Ranieri was suspended, with Dodo and Danilo Cataldi injured. Edoardo Bove was given a warm welcome, the Roma youth product’s first return to the Stadio Olimpico since his cardiac issues.
See how the game unfolded on the Liveblog.
Lorenzo Pellegrini and Amir Richardson had long-range efforts deflected, but the first real chance was after 27 minutes when Kean turned Zeki Celik to go clear, forcing Mile Svilar to rush off his line and make himself big to parry.
Moments later, Kean got away from Gianluca Mancini for a low angled drive, drawing another very difficult one-handed save from Svilar at the near post.
Roma had their first opportunity when Celik got down the right, his ferocious rising strike punched over by David De Gea from a tricky angle, the goalkeeper then fingertipping the corner off the head of Mancini.
Dovbyk decisive for Roma
Kean fired straight at Svilar from the edge of the area, but it was Roma who broke the deadlock deep into first half stoppages. First De Gea flew to palm the Eldor Shomurodov half-volley out from under the crossbar, then on the resulting corner Shomurodov knocked down the Angelino cross for a Dovbyk diving header at the back post. Fiorentina protested, as they felt this was too far beyond the allocated added time.
Manu Kone also tested De Gea from distance after the restart, while Zaniolo completely mis-kicked the Amir Richardson pull-back from six yards during a long spell of Fiorentina pressure.
Svilar showed strong reflexes as Rolando Mandragora smashed at a loose ball just inside the box, sticking out a boot to parry, then made a desperate double save when Kean was sent through by Mandragora’s first-time pass, managing to get his gloves to the first attempt and smother the rebound too.
Roma 1-0 Fiorentina
Dovbyk 45+5 (R)
04-05-2025 17:00 MatchDay 35 Stadio Olimpico
89' Roma Fiorentina
Starting lineups
9946' 8
Substitutes
9271'
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