José Mourinho has had a successful return as a trainer of AS Roma. In the first game of the new season, at home against Fiorentina, we won i Giallorossi Sunday evening 3-1. Acquisition Tammy Abraham, who came over from Chelsea for forty million euros, made a good impression and provided two assists. It was a spectacular match, in which two red cards were handed out and two apparently invalid goals were declared valid. Napoli also started the new season well, winning 2-0 against Venezia.
AS Roma – Fiorentina 3-1
A red card in the seventeenth minute caused a stir at Stadio Olimpico. Fiorentina’s goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski went far out of his goal to keep the broken through Abraham off the ball, but was just too late. He tackled striker and had to pay for his intervention, 22 meters from the goal, with a red card. Against ten men, Roma took the lead after 25 minutes. Abraham moved in past the penalty area and served the detached Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who assumed, turned open, before substitute goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano appeared and searched the right corner. It took another two minutes before the arbitration ruled that Mkhitaryan was not offside.
GOAL AS Roma! ?? Just after Fiorentina’s equalizer, Roma takes the lead again ?? Jordan Veretout makes it 2-1, on a pass from Tammy Abraham! ??#ZiggoSport #SeriesA #RomaFiorentina pic.twitter.com/SqF07EzxVh
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) August 22, 2021
Six minutes after the break, however, Roma also had to continue with ten men. Nicolò Zaniolo attacked Nicolás González, interrupting a promising attack and was treated to his second yellow card. Ten to ten, Fiorentina smelled blood. The visitors came alongside Nikola Milenkovic, who was able to take the ball on the five-meter line after a turning cross from Erick Pulgar and rounded it off in a controlled manner. Abraham then hit the crossbar, but then prepared for the 2-1: the striker put the ball back to Jordan Veretout, who hit the far post; the goal seemed to be disallowed, but in the end it counted anyway, because he was not offside either. Veretout also made it 3-1 after being reached in the penalty area by a razor sharp pass from Eldor Shomurodov.
Napoli – Venice 2-0
The game had been going on for just over twenty minutes when Napoli had to continue with ten men. Victor Osimhen was clearly not wanted by the guard by Daan Heymans at a corner and wanted to take distance, but his fist went against the throat of the defender. The referee was relentless and sent the attacker off the field with a red card. In his first season, Osimhen was also booked twice in the Europa League match with Real Sociedad.
Ten minutes after the break, Napoli appeared to be 1-0 up when Mattia Caldara made hands on a cross from Mario Rui and the ball hit the spot. Lorenzo Insigne, however, shot the ball over the goal. Barely five minutes later, Pietro Ceccaroni also made hands in the penalty area and Insigne managed to control his nerves from eleven meters: 1-0. Shortly after a bet by Francesco Forte on the post, Napoli made it 2-0 via Eljif Elmas and that was also the final score in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.