Roma came from a goal behind to win 3-1 at the Stadio Olimpico against Sassuolo on Sunday evening to regain second spot from Napoli in Serie A.

Grégoire Defrel opened the scoring for the visitors after just nine minutes but goals from Leandro Paredes, Mohamed Salah and Edin Džeko sealed a win that saw the hosts move back above Napoli into second, whilst Sassuolo sit 15th.

Luciano Spalletti's Roma are eight points off of leaders Juventus after 29 games.

Sassuolo make rapid start

After a lively start, young star Domenico Berardi drove down the left and pulled the ball back across the box and Matteo Politano’s dummy fooled the whole of Roma’s defence before Defrel fired a ferocious left-footed effort past Wojciech Szczęsny into the top left corner.

Defrel could have made it two just a minute later without a smart block from Federico Fazio - on loan from Tottenham Hotspur - but against the run of play, Roma were level on 16 minutes.

Radja Nainggolan ran into a cul-de-sac but found Salah who laid the ball off to Paredes and the Argentine’s sweetly struck shot from outside the box nestled into the bottom corner.

They were almost ahead three minutes later through Emerson, who smashed against the crossbar after Nainggolan had whipped a ball across the face of goal, and it was getting very end-to-end when Politano found himself one on one with Szczęsny, but the Pole was out quick to deny the Italian.

Roma grab lead before the break

Antonio Rüdiger was next to go close with a header, but Roma were to go in at the break a goal to the good thanks to former Chelsea winger Salah.

Stephan El Shaarawy saw his shot well saved by Andrea Consigli in the Sassuolo goal, but he could only parry as far as Salah who fended off a defender and poked home from a couple of yards out.

The Egyptian almost doubled his tally early in the second-half after a counter attack, when Kevin Strootman’s pin-point pass found Salah on the right but he dragged his shot wide of Consigli’s right-hand post.

Džeko seals the deal with 20 minutes to go

Roma didn’t have to wait too much longer to double the lead as substitute Džeko took Strootman’s chipped pass down on his thigh and found himself one-on-one with Consigli, making no mistake to coolly place the ball beyond the ‘keeper into the far corner.

The Bosnian almost had a second when he latched onto a loose backpass from Cristian Dell’Orco but couldn’t beat Consigli for a second time with his left foot.