Late own goal dooms Roma to defeat at Sampdoria

Updated: May 17, 2023, 06:12 am
Miralem Pjanic and Roma were undone by a late Kostas Manolas own goal.
Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images

A late own goal from Roma defender Kostas Manolas gave Sampdoria a 2-1 victory in Genoa on Wednesday evening.

Roma winger Mohamed Salah had cancelled out Citadin Eder's opener in the 69th minute.

With five minutes remaining, Eder hit a dangerous ball towards the area and in an attempt to clear, Manolas sent the ball into his own net with Roma goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis unable to stop it.

The defeat, Roma's first of the campaign, has dropped the Giallorossi to ninth in the standings, seven points adrift of league leaders Inter Milan.

Inter won 1-0 against Hellas Verona on Wednesday to maintain their perfect start to the campaign.

Samp went into the encounter at the Luigi Ferraris stadium after Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Torino, their first loss of the season, and have climbed to fifth.

Roma had been held to a 2-2 draw by Sassuolo in the last round and were without captain Francesco Totti and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny due to injury.

The Giallorossi had the first chance in the 24th minute when Miralem Pjanic warmed the hands of Emiliano Viviano with a hard drive from 25 yards.

The home side had to make their first substitution soon after with Matias Silvestre sustaining a muscular injury and Niklas Moisander taking his place in defence.

In the 32nd minute, Manolas made a vital block on Luis Muriel, who was running clear on goal.

Roma surged forward and on the stroke of half-time, Edin Dzeko hit a right-footed shot from outside the area that went over the bar.

Samp looked more lively after the restart and broke the deadlock five minutes into the second half.

Eder's powerful free-kick went past the Roma wall and inside the near post to beat De Sanctis.

Roma almost equalised seven minutes later when Pjanic's free-kick took a deflection off Roberto Soriano to force Viviano into an instinctive save.

The visitors continued to push forward and finally pulled level when Pjanic set up Salah and the Egyptian struck the ball from 12 yards past a helpless Viviano.

Roma's late efforts then proved to no avail as Manolas scuffed the ball into his own net from close range.

Samp defended deeply in the last stages of the game to earn victory.

The Genoa outfit visits Atalanta on Monday while Rudi Garcia's Roma host promoted Carpi on Saturday.