Leccevs
RomaRoma came to Salento and treated it like a training exercise. By the 25th minute, the match was effectively over. By the 65th, it was a formality. Lecce had no answers, and Roma, frankly, didn't need all of them.
Our pre-match read made Roma the clear favorite at 63%, and they left absolutely no doubt.
Over Before Halftime
Donyell Malen opened the scoring in the 4th minute, and the tone was set immediately. Lecce barely had time to gather themselves before Malen struck again in the 23rd, this time with Wesley picking him out. Two minutes later, Matías Soulé made it three — a two-minute spell that caved the whole thing in.
Malen did pick up a yellow card in the 9th minute, sandwiched between his two goals, which will have given Roma's bench a moment of pause. But it came to nothing, and he finished the half with a brace and the game's defining contribution.
Qué noche la del holandés. Three goals in 25 minutes between them, and Lecce's defensive shape never recovered from the pace of it.
The Second Half Was Cleanup
With a 3-0 lead at the break, Roma's second-half task was management. They managed it comfortably. Rodrigo Mora added a fourth in the 65th minute, assisted by Gianluca Mancini, to give the scoreline its final, emphatic shape.
Lecce's only real resistance showed up in the numbers: seven shots, three on target, four saves forced. That's a team that didn't quit, but it's also a team that was badly outclassed. Roma finished with 64.2% possession, 15 shots, eight on target, and a pass accuracy of 90% across 680 passes. Lecce completed 375 at 80%. The gap in control was total.
Ivan Ilic picked up a yellow card in the 90th for Lecce — the kind of booking that tells you everything about how the night went for the home side.
Verdict
Five matches, five wins. Roma will feel like genuine title contenders if they keep this up, and right now there's no reason to think they'll slow down. The attack looks deep — Malen, Soulé, and Mora all on the scoresheet from different moments and different situations — and the control they showed in possession suggests a side that knows exactly what it wants to do.
For Lecce, this is the kind of result that stings but probably won't define their season. Their form coming in was mixed, and a 4-0 loss to the league's in-form side — cabal, sometimes that's just the math. The question is whether they can tighten up defensively before it becomes a pattern.
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