Roma hosted Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico in their season opener, with the new 2014-15 season in the Serie A underway.

Earlier on in the evening, the defending champions Juventus were made to work hard for a 1-0 victory, with the only goal of the game being an own-goal courtesy of young left-back Cristiano Biraghi.

It would be interesting to see how the two teams performed, especially as they both did well last season to finish in the top four. Roma had made 5 or 6 notable signings during the transfer window, with former Chelsea left-back Ashley Cole, defender Kostas Manolas and young winger Juan Iturbe both starting their league debuts for their new team. 

And, it ended up being the hosts Roma who were dominating in the first-half. They passed the ball around well in midfield, with Pjanic and de Rossi starting attacks with their super vision as per usual. Gervinho went close on a few occasions, to be denied by the goalkeeper before they broke the deadlock in the 27th minute thanks to a rebounded effort from Belgian midfielder Radja Nainggolan who smashed the ball first-time into the net to make it 2 goals in 2 matches against Fiorentina. 

At half-time, it was 1-0 to the hosts having dominated the possession and chances' stats. 

Gervinho almost made it 2-0 early on in the second-half, as Fiorentina struggled to keep possession of the ball well enough in midfield - but some good defensive blocks denied the former Arsenal forward from getting on the scoresheet. 

Half-hearted penalty appeal waved away by the referee after 51 minutes, with Pjanic being clipped from behind inside the area by Pizarro but no foul was given despite clear contact on the Bosnian midfielder..

Gervinho showed his quick feet and good dribbling to weave past 3 defenders on the counter attack, before his shot was delayed giving the last defender time to track back and deny the Ivorian forward with a sliding block. Then, a nice pass from Pjanic set him on his way again - but he was denied this time by Fiorentina goalkeeper Neto who did well to parry his fierce strike wide for a corner. 

The visitors suddenly woke up and had a spring in their step as they had a potential dangerous set-piece from 25 yards out, a costless-kick to be taken by midfielder Josip Illic

His effort swerved high over the wall and bounced off the crossbar, before de Sanctis did well to dive low to his left and deny Babacar from close range. 

It was clear to see that Fiorentina had improved attacking-wise in the second-half, but they were not able to break down Roma enough to keep up the pressure after the two goal-scoring chances were denied by solid goalkeeping from de Sanctis. 

And with the last kick of the game, Roma doubled the lead to make it 2-0 after Gervinho was set through with yet another chance; this time he could have no complaints and went around the goalkeeper before slotting into the net.

Fiorentina will feel disappointed that they could not score, and even more annoyed that they could not keep out two goals which could have been stopped if they defended properly.

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Mosope Ominiyi
Writer and editor - European football analyst, youth enthusiast. Email: [email protected]