Roma squeeze past Salernitana in Serie A opener

Milan – Roma began their Serie A campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Salernitana on Sunday, while Ciro Immobile shot Lazio to a comeback 2-1 win over Bologna.

Paulo Dybala and Georginio Wijnaldum both made their league debuts for Jose Mourinho’s Roma but it was an older hand in Bryan Cristante (right) who decided the match in the 33rd minute.

Italy international Cristante claimed the points with a drive from the edge of the area which took at least one deflection before nestling in the bottom corner.

Roma’s margin of victory would have been larger had they capitalised on a series of chances, in particular in the first half.

“I would have been happy if we’d won 3-0 or 4-0 but what I liked was that even though we didn’t score as many as we should have we had enough maturity to control the game,” Mourinho told reporters.

Dybala sruck the post in the dying seconds of the opening half after a winding run from Nicolo Zaniolo, who could have easily had two of his own before the break in a exciting display from the 23-year-old.

It was far from one-way traffic at the Stadio Arechi as Salernitana, who completed a miracle escape from the drop to stay in Serie A, squeezed Roma back towards their own goal.

But they struggled to create chances and were visibly tired in the latter stages.

Italy striker Immobile coolly slotted home the winner with 11 minutes remaining at the Stadio Olimpico to complete a comeback which looked unlikely when the hosts went a man down in the fourth minute.

Goalkeeper Luis Maximiano was sent off for handling outside his own area, and Maurizio Sarri’s side were a goal down in the 38th minute following another couple of blunders from Alessio Romagnoli and Mattia Zaccagni which led to a silly foul on Nicola Sansone and a penalty, which Marko Arnautovic happily tucked away.

They were level in the 68th minute thanks to Lorenzo De Silvestri’s own goal, the Italian watching on in horror as Manuel Lazzari’s cross was patted onto him by goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski and rolled into his own net.

The club’s all-time top scorer netted the winner after being put through by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. –