The Special one managed his 1000th match as a coach. The famous Portuguese is into his third decade as a coach, and after 25 trophies, 43 individual awards and six Guinness World records Jose Mourinho just wanted a victory in his 1000th game in charge. And he got it from his most valuable substitute – Faraone. Stephan El Shaarawy came in and scored an injury time winner to bring his coach a fifth win in a row since taking over Roma in a game which could have gone either way: Roma – Sassuolo 2-1. Roma players decided to get a win for their coach and started to attack from the very first minute. They had the initiative but ended with only one shot on goal during the first half. Luckily for Mourinho, that lonely shot was actually a goal. It was a well trained action from the free kick, as Pellegrini never took a proper shot, but just passed the ball into space where Cristante came in and and finished calmly for the lead. The rythm of the game was high, and Roma maintained a high pressure on Sassuolo players, and then transitioned into a counter attack brilliantly. The guests also had two chances to score first, but Berrardi and Djuricic were not precise enough.
But, Sassuolo proved to be a much tougher opponent than Trabzonspor or Salernitana. During the first 12 minutes of the second half, the visitors had three chances, before Filip Djuricic equalized. Roma had an excellent chance of coming back into the lead again, but Abraham nearly missed the goal. And then Sassuolo’s Boga had not one, but two great chances to score but Rui Patricio made two excellent saves to deny the guests. And then, when everybody thought that the game will finish 1-1, which would be fair, an unlikely, but well known Roma hero, appeared and scored a beautiful volley for all 3 points – Stephan El Shaarawy! And Mourinho was joyfull as well, as he made his famous sprint near the pitch to celebrate a victory.
SERIE A – ROUND 3SaturdayEmpoli – Venezia 1-2 (0-1)/Bajrami 89 – Henry 13, Okereke 68/Napoli – Juventus 2-1 (0-1)/Politano 57, Koulibali 85 – Morata 11/21:45: Atalanta – FiorentinaSundaySampdoria – Inter 2-2 (1-2)/Yoshida 33′, Augello 47′ – Dimarco 18′, Martinez 44’/Torino – Salernitana 4-0 (1-0)/Sanabria 45, Bremer 65, Pobega 87, Lukic 90+2/Cagliari – Genoa 2-3 (1-0)/Pedro 16, Ceppitelli 65 – Destro 59, Fares 69, 78/Spezia – Udinese 0-1 (0-0)/Samardzic 89/Milan – Lazio 2-0 (1-0)/Leao 45, Ibrahimovic 67/Roma – Sassuolo 2-1 (1-0)/Cristante 37,El Shaarawy 90+2 – Djuricic 57/Monday21:45: Bologna – Verona