Roma and Lazio’s Unbeaten Runs Elevate Rome’s Football Status as Rodrigo Mora Emerges

After nine matches in 28 days, Gian Piero Gasperini finally had a moment to pause and reflect on Sunday evening. The Roma manager returned to Liguria, where he spent the best part of a decade across two spells at Genoa, to receive an award from Stelle Nello Sport – an organisation dedicated to promoting sport in the region – honouring his career achievements and commitment to courageous, attacking football.

The timing proved fortuitous. Gasperini’s Roma thrashed Sassuolo 3-0 on Saturday, rebounding from a midweek loss to Manchester United. The result meant the Giallorossi had scored 31 times in 11 Serie A fixtures. In the past 65 years, only two Italian sides – the Juventus and Napoli teams of 2017-18 – have made a more prolific start to a top-flight campaign. Perhaps more importantly, Roma’s victory kept them undefeated in domestic competition this season, matching their neighbours Lazio, who drew 1-1 away to Napoli in Sunday’s early kick-off.

Roma Caput Mundi? The old Latin phrase positions Rome as the capital of the world. That may be a stretch, given Roma’s result against United. Lazio are not even competing in European competition this season, and their manager, Gennaro Gattuso, continues to insist his priority is avoiding relegation.

Nevertheless, this represents an extraordinary moment for football in the capital. According to Opta, this is the first time two clubs from the same city have gone through 11 games of a Serie A season without a single defeat. The statistic stands out even more when one considers that Rome’s two leading clubs have won just five Scudetti between them – compared to 40 combined for Internazionale and Milan.

Acknowledging this detail in an interview after collecting his award, Gasperini could not resist drawing a contrast between his team and their rivals. “It’s a bit of a surprise for everyone to have this Scudetto derby situation playing out in November,” he said. “But it’s a reflection of the values of the city. Rome is an extraordinary city with a huge enthusiasm for football. For Roma, the stadium is always full. Lazio might have some other problems. But the passion for football in Rome is incredible.”

His reference was to the mass boycott of Lazio’s home games by supporters, the reasons for which have been covered in recent editions of this column. Attendance figures for the Biancocelesti’s home matches at the Stadio Olimpico this season hover around 10,000. Roma drew 64,674 for the Sassuolo game on Saturday – in line with their average. Ticket sales do not decide football matches; Lazio sit top of the table heading into the international break. But Roma have plenty to feel positive about as well.

Sassuolo were just about the ideal opponents for Roma this weekend. Seeking a response after their collapse in Manchester, Gasperini’s side lined up against a team that had earned a single point from its previous six outings and possessed the leakiest defence in the division.

Leonardo Balerdi had a header cleared off the line before Mario Hermoso put Roma ahead in the 27th minute, punishing some indecisive defending. Moments later, a scuffed shot from Donyell Malen – bobbling well off target – took deflections off a pair of Sassuolo players and ended up in the back of the net. The only remaining question was how many more goals Roma would add. In the end, it was just one: Rodrigo Mora cutting in from the left, exchanging passes with Malen, before striking back across his body into the bottom corner from the right side of the box.

A third consecutive Serie A game with a goal for the 19-year-old, who also set up Matías Soulé’s opener against United. The Portuguese youngster even played the initial ball to create the chance that led to Roma’s penalty in that match.

Gasperini has never been shy in his enthusiasm for Mora. “We’re standing before an extraordinary talent,” said the manager after including the teenager in his starting XI for a season-opening 4-0 win over Fiorentina in August. “Every time he touches the ball, something beautiful happens.”

He is not alone in noticing. Mora received a call-up from Portugal this week for their Nations League fixtures against Denmark and Wales. He has trained with the senior squad before but has yet to feature. Greater opportunities may arise now that Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football, though Mora expressed regret, too, at not getting to train again with a man he described as “my idol”.

Back at Roma, Gasperini has been careful not to demand too much, too soon, from Mora, giving him a full 90 minutes only once, in a Champions League rout of Slovan Bratislava. Otherwise, he has alternated starts with substitute appearances during this congested early-season period.

Only in the last week did that approach shift. Mora started against Udinese, scoring the second goal in a 5-2 win, then returned to the lineup to face United. Gasperini’s decision to withdraw him at half-time of that game has attracted widespread criticism. Such assessments are always easy to oversimplify, but it is true that Roma’s attacking threat appeared to vanish with Mora’s departure after the interval.

Gasperini spoke after that defeat of it being a lesson from which Roma could learn. His team remains a work in progress, but the trajectory is more than encouraging. Roma secured their Champions League place by winning six of their final seven games last season. They have not lost a domestic home game for more than 11 months, and even their most recent away defeat in Serie A, to Inter, dates back to April.

Mora’s rapid ascent has added a new dimension. The attack seen in Roma’s last three matches, with him and Soulé flanking Malen in a 3-4-2-1, has carved opponents open with such devastating effectiveness that one could start to wonder whether a fit Paulo Dybala – for so long the standout talent here – would displace any of them from a first-choice XI.

This is not really a debate anyone needs to have. Roma hope to have Dybala back from his calf injury after the international window, but his body has always enforced breaks in every season, and the Giallorossi will require rotation regardless to keep everyone fresh through a long campaign.

The improved depth of Roma’s squad, on the other hand, is a reason to believe they can sustain their strong start. Gasperini, like most managers, would prefer to discuss the next game rather than title ambitions this early in a campaign, but when a reporter asked if he would sign up now for a guaranteed second place, he dismissed the idea out of hand.

“We don’t need to give ourselves false illusions, but we’re not going to knock ourselves down for no reason either,” he said. “I don’t know what we can achieve.”