Gasperini: ‘Roma are dreaming of the Scudetto, Dovbyk doesn’t seem great’

Gian Piero Gasperini believes that it is only right for Roma fans to start dreaming of the Scudetto as they go into the international break at the top of the Serie A table thanks to Sunday’s 2-0 win over Udinese. 

The Giallorossi were barely able to rotate the squad after Thursday’s 2-0 Europa League victory away to Glasgow Rangers, but there were few signs of fatigue, as Lorenzo Pellegrini converted a penalty and Zeki Celik secured the 2-0 result over Udinese this evening.

Artem Dovbyk went off with a hip issue just before half-time, however, joining Paulo Dybala, Evan Ferguson, Leon Bailey and Angelino on the absentee list, leaving Roma with no centre-forwards at all.

Sunday’s victory puts Roma clear at the top of the table going into the break for international duty, although they could be joined by Inter if Cristian Chivu’s side manage to beat Lazio at San Siro this evening.

You can see how the action from all of Sunday’s Serie A matches unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog. 

“It’s great that fans are dreaming of the Scudetto,” Gasperini told DAZN after full-time. 

“We’ve got to the international break in first place in the standings, it’s a source of great pride and satisfaction for the fans. We’ll see about percentages and probabilities later.”

And on today’s victory over Udinese specifically, Gasperini said: “They did very well against a difficult opponent. We faced them with a lot of determination and kept the pace very high.

“They looked to play aerially a lot, but slowly, we started to dominate the game. A bit of fatigue took over in the final minutes, but I was very pleased with the match considering the level of difficulty.” 

There was a goal from the penalty spot for former captain Lorenzo Pellegrini against Udinese. He has been one of the main beneficiaries since the injury to Paulo Dybala. 

“He’s a good player. He’s healthy and he’s mature,” Gasperini said. 

“Football wise, he’s a strong player. We had to give him back the trust that he deserved. He’s doing fine physically now, and we are happy for him, but also for ourselves because we benefit from him.” 

And will Pellegrini still be the penalty taker once Dybala returns? 

“Whoever scores (gets to take them). Scoring penalties is a rare thing for us. Pellegrini takes them very well, but Dybala also had a good record before Milan.” 

And on the injured Dovbyk, Gasperini said: “We’ll see tomorrow. It doesn’t seem great. Fortunately we have the break before our next game, but these are injuries that maybe take you two to three weeks and maybe five to six games. 

“We have a lot of absences in the same area of the pitch, but we’ve managed to make up for it well so far. We hope to get as many players back as possible during the break.”