Dybala transformed Roma and beat HJK

José Mourinho’s Roma settled HJK Helsinki’s visit to the Olympic Stadium (3-0) with an important victory and straightened their course in group C of the Europa League after making their debut defeat at Ludogorets (2-1). The Italians now share second place with the Bulgarians, who were beaten today by Betis (3-2).

Mourinho left Dybala on the bench for the first time since the start of the season after giving him the starting line-up for the previous seven games, but he had to turn to the Argentine from the start of the second half to avoid another scare by remaining 0 -0 at the break.

In his place, Nicolò Zaniolo reappeared after three weeks but did not shine until the arrival of Dybala, with whom he worked perfectly, and ended up providing two goal assists.

Red in the middle and captain of HJK

The match was marked by a red card for Miro Tenho, central defender and captain of HJK, for bringing down Andrea Belotti as the last defender after he was hit. The Italian striker latched on to a poor pass from Lucas Lingman and shot towards goal.

Romanian referee Radu Petrescu initially showed Tenho a yellow card but, after consulting VAR, sent him off with a straight red card.

Hoskonen’s goal kept it 0-0

This quarter of an hour shift allowed Roma to increase their pace of play and build up attacking troops, although before the flurry of chances it generated there was a moment of chaos when the central defender Arttu Hoskonen, after taking a free kick, heads the post ( 27′).

Having overcome this fear, Roma locked up HJK in the last quarter of an hour of the first half but could not move the scoreboard on several occasions due to the lack of success with two headers by Belotti (27′ and 41′) and , in all of the thing, the inspired intervention of the Northern Irish goalkeeper Conor Hazard in one-on-one with Belotti himself (32′), in a clear arrival of Zaniolo (38′) and in a whiplash of Bryan Cristante (40 ‘).

Dybala came in on the break and scored in the minute

Roma were in full control, but Mourinho did not want to solve the match too soon and put Dybala into action, whose presence on the pitch completely changed the setting. In fact, ‘Joya’, the undisputed idol of the fans, opened the scoring in the first minute after the restart after a perfect combination with the first touch.

Leonardo Spinazzola passed to Lorenzo Pellegrini, who delayed Dybala, who headed into the net with a cross shot near the post. Only two minutes later it was 2-0. Zaniolo left with a good cut to the baseline, his cross was deflected by a defender and Pellegrini, almost by accident, pushed the ball into the net with his side (49′).

Zaniolo’s second assist

The match was decisively condemned in the 68th minute with another action from the left by Zaniolo, given the wings of Dybala’s entry. His pass was pushed at will by a completely unmarked Belotti in the face of the defensive passivity of a Finnish team that barely put up any resistance.

Roma recovered after throwing doubts in the previous three games (losing to Ludogorets by 2-1 and Udinese by 4-0 and rushing to win 1-2 at Empoli) before hosting Atalanta on Sunday in the lead of Serie A in the Game.