Homegrown hero Pisilli helps Roma beat Venezia but the team's troubles aren't over yet
MILAN (AP) — Roma’s troubles are far from over despite new coach Ivan Jurić making it two wins in two league matches in charge of the Giallorossi.
Homegrown midfielder Niccolò Pisilli — who grew up supporting Roma and progressed through its youth team — netted his first Serie A goal to help Roma fight back to snatch a win over promoted Venezia 2-1 at Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.
“It’s a dream come true. To score in this stadium with this shirt is everything a Roman and a Romanista dreams of since a child. I’m delighted," Pisilli said.
Venezia had been leading at halftime, prompting huge jeers from Roma fans.
Roma moved up to ninth, four points behind new leader Napoli, which went top of Serie A with a comfortable 2-0 win over Monza.
Roma had finally got its first win of the season last Sunday, just days after Jurić replaced the fired Daniele De Rossi. There were protests by the fans during that match against Udinese and enthusiasm was further dampened by a 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao in the Europa League midweek.
Venezia took the lead in Rome on the stroke of halftime. Gianluca Busio curled an effort off the far right post but Joel Pohjanpalo was the quickest to react on the rebound to fire into the bottom left corner.
There was still time before the break for Venezia to almost get another as Roma defender Gianluca Mancini cleared Gaetano Oristanio’s strike off the line with goalkeeper Mile Svilar stranded after parrying another effort from Pohjanpalo.
Ridgeciano Haps had a goal ruled out for Venezia early in the second half, for offside in the buildup, before Roma leveled in somewhat fortunate circumstances in the 75th minute.
Bryan Cristante’s powerful shot took a massive deflection off Busio to loop up and drop between Venezia goalkeeper Jesse Joronen and the crossbar.
And Roma turned the match around completely eight minutes later when Pisilli, who turned 20 last Monday, headed in a corner at the near post.
"I gave myself a nice birthday present a week later,” Pisilli said.
Conte's stellar Napoli defense
Antonio Conte has Napoli playing like champions again after last season's poor performances.
Matteo Politano opened the scoring in the 22nd minute as he broke down the right and attempted to play a one-two with Romelu Lukaku. Monza midfielder Alessandro Bianco tried to intercept but ended up giving the ball back to Politano, who cut inside and unleashed an angled shot into the far bottom corner.
Napoli doubled its lead 11 minutes later as Monza goalkeeper Stefano Turati’s pass was intercepted and was played back in to Scott McTominay. His effort was blocked by Andrea Carboni but it fell to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to volley in.
Since losing 3-0 at Hellas Verona on the opening day of the season, Napoli has only conceded one goal in six matches.
First defeat
Torino fell to its first league defeat of the season, losing 3-2 at home to Lazio.
Torino had gone into the weekend as surprise leader but found itself behind in the eighth minute when Nuno Tavares burst down the left and pulled back from the byline for Matteo Guendouzi.
It was a fourth assist in as many matches for Tavares after the defender joined on loan from Arsenal in the offseason.
Boulaye Dia doubled Lazio’s lead on the hour mark but Che Adams reduced the deficit seven minutes later as the Scotland forward netted for the third successive match.
Tijjani Noslin all but sealed the win for Lazio in the final minute when he scored within 30 seconds of coming off the bench. Saul Coco grabbed a stoppage-time consolation for Torino with a stunning, acrobatic volley into the top left corner.
Como beat 10-man Hellas Verona 3-2. Empoli drew 0-0 with Fiorentina in a Tuscan derby.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
