Serie A | Torino 0-2 Roma: Dybala delight on perfect Malen debut

Donyell Malen made the ideal Roma debut with a goal, while Paulo Dybala provided an assist and ended a three-month drought to conquer Torino 2-0 and go clear in fourth place.

Curiously, these teams met just five days ago in the Coppa Italia, Torino winning a 3-2 thriller in the Capital to reach the quarter-final. Giovanni Simeone was only fit for the bench, with Ivan Ilic, Ali Dembele, Zanos Savva and Perr Schuurs injured, plus Adam Masina at AFCON and Duvan Zapata absent over a family matter. The Giallorossi threw new buy Malen straight into the starting XI, as Artem Dovbyk, Evan Ferguson, Tommaso Baldanzi, Leon Bailey and Stephan El Shaarawy were out of action, with Lorenzo Pellegrini making his comeback after a month. Evan Ndicka returned from international duty, but Neil El Aynaoui was still out. Zeki Celik pulled out in the warm-up, replaced by Devyne Rensch.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Pellegrini scuffed a finish wide on the Gianluca Mancini pull-back, then Malen’s angled drive was parried by Alberto Paleari’s outstretched boot at the near post.

Paulo Dybala combined with Malen to drill just wide, but Mario Hermoso limped off with a hip issue, replaced by Daniele Ghilardi.

Roma had the ball in the net moments later when Malen ran onto the Dybala pass and cut inside Saul Coco, toe-poking the right-foot finish into the far bottom corner from 11 yards. However, VAR showed the debutant was marginally offside.

It was only a warning, as soon after the former Aston Villa striker did get on the scoresheet when he gathered another Dybala assist, took a touch and swept in right-footed from seven yards.

Things went from bad to worse for Toro, who lost Zakaria Aboukhlal to a left thigh injury, while Cyril Ngonge threatened with a couple of efforts from distance.

Casadei also came on for the restart, and they immediately had a chance when Valentin Lazaro prodded into Mile Svilar’s arms from a promising position, then Ndicka sprinted back for a decisive sliding tackle as Ngonge was going clear.

Just as Toro were pushing, Roma doubled their lead. Dybala’s daisy-cutter from the edge of the area forced a one-handed Paleari save, but Gianluca Mancini laid off the rebound for Rensch, who pulled back for the Dybala dinked finish off the outside of the boot from six yards. It was his first Serie A goal in almost three months.

Malen nearly got a third moments later, hitting the side-netting after a Wesley run, and Robinio Vaz came on for his debut as well.

Che Adams threatened to get one back, his angled drive grazing a coat of paint off the far post from the Nikola Vlasic through ball, and Saul Coco also fired wide.

Robinio Vaz nearly scored on his Roma debut too, but Paleari parried the strike with his legs.

Malen 26 (R), Dybala 72 (R)