Serie A | Roma 2-0 Sassuolo: Kone and Soule secure victory eventually

Paulo Dybala’s curler was beaten away by Arijanet Muric just beyond Evan Ferguson, while Mancini made a decisive tackle when Armand Laurienté went on the counter-attack.

There was a double Sassuolo chance on 17 minutes when Ismael Koné sprung the offside trap to be denied one-on-one by Mile Svilar’s legs, then Laurienté got the rebound all wrong to drill wide.

Alieu Fadera also tested Svilar at the near post, while Ferguson turned over under pressure from Jay Idzes on a cross from the right. That was his second knock to the back, so the Irish centre-forward was struggling and went off, replaced by Stephan El Shaarawy.

There was a big double chance for Roma after the restart, but after Muric got down to parry the El Shaarawy daisy-cutter, Tsimikas horribly fired the rebound over.

Matias Soulé also scuffed a finish wide from a promising position, then the referee pointed to the spot on the hour mark when Muric brought down Soulé on a Mario Hermoso header over the top. However, it was revoked by VAR because Soulé was offside, though the booking to the Sassuolo goalkeeper remained.

Pisilli’s cross-shot stung Muric’s gloves, while Manu Kone’s low drive from the edge of the area was too weak to trouble the Sassuolo goalkeeper.

Roma did finally break the deadlock when a corner was cleared, Zeki Celik took his time to pick the right pass, sending Soulé down the left to stand up a cross for the Manu Koné header from six yards.

They had barely had time to finish celebrating when scoring a second. Daniele Ghilardi combined with Celik to break down the right and pulled back, El Shaarawy had a delightful back-heel flick to set up Soulé to sweep in undisturbed.

Mario Hermoso turned the dinked Dybala cross over from six yards moments later, while Pisilli and Manu Koné had more opportunities off target.

El Shaarawy had it in the net during stoppages with a sweeping finish, but Devyne Rensch was offside for the build-up. The Little Pharaoh went close again with a lob onto the roof of the net from Dybala’s assist.

Roma 2-0 Sassuolo

M Koné 77 (R), Soulé 79 (R)

10-01-2026 17:00 MatchDay 20 Stadio Olimpico

Roma

Sassuolo 2 - 0

Player statistic

1st half

Manu Koné		22'
Mario Hermoso		23'

2nd half

		59'		Arijanet Muric
Manu Koné (Assist: Matìas Soulé)		76'
Matìas Soulé (Assist: Stephan El Shaarawy)

79'         85'

Nemanja Matic

Match statistic

64 Possession % 36 26 Total shots 5 6 Shots on target 3 13 Shots off target 1 7 Blocked shots 1 5 Corners 2 2 Offsides 1 15 Fouls 16 Roma Sassuolo

Starting lineups

99

Mile Svilar Goalkeeper 87 Daniele Ghilardi Defender 23

Gianluca Mancini Defender 87' 12

Konstantinos Tsimikas Defender 63' 22

Mario Hermoso Defender 19

Zeki Celik Defender 88' 17

Manu Koné Midfielder 61 Niccolò Pisilli Midfielder 11

Evan Ferguson Attacker 39' 18

Matìas Soulé Attacker 88' 21

Paulo Dybala Attacker 49

Arijanet Muric Goalkeeper 21 Jay Idzes Defender 3

Josh Doig Defender 6

Sebastian Walukiewicz Defender 80

Tarik Muharemovic Defender 20 Alieu Fadera Midfielder 73' 90

Ismaël Koné Midfielder 83' 35 Luca Lipani Midfielder 72' 18

Nemanja Matic Midfielder 99

Andrea Pinamonti Attacker 83' 45

Armand Lauriente Attacker

83'

Substitutes

3

Angeliño Defender 32

Devis Vásquez Goalkeeper 91 Radoslaw Zelezny Goalkeeper 68 Antonio Arena Attacker 69 Muhammed Bah Midfielder 76 Jacopo Mirra Defender 77 Emanuele Lulli Defender 92

Stephan El Shaarawy Attacker 39' 43

Wesley Defender 63' 24 Jan Ziolkowski Defender 87' 2 Devyne Rensch Defender 88' 60 Alessandro Romano Midfielder 88' 12

Giacomo Satalino Goalkeeper 16 Gioele Zacchi Goalkeeper 17 Yeferson Paz Defender 13 Stefano Turati Goalkeeper 26 Cas Odenthal Defender 14 Laurs Skjellerup Attacker 31 Tommaso Macchioni Defender 98 Luca Barani Defender 40

Aster Vranckx Midfielder 72' 9

Walid Cheddira Attacker 73' 24 Luca Moro Attacker 83' 44 Edoardo Iannoni Midfielder 83' 77

Nicholas Pierini Attacker

83'