AS Roma hosted Pisa at the Olimpico on Friday evening and won 3-0, the result shaped almost entirely by one man: Roma forward Donyell Malen, who scored all three goals and was withdrawn after 78 minutes with the contest long settled.
The opener arrived inside three minutes. Malen collected and finished before Pisa, managed by Paolo Bianco, had time to establish any defensive shape. The tone was set immediately: a side in the form of their lives against one that has not won in five attempts. Roma, under Gian Piero Gasperini, had conceded just two goals across their previous four league matches entering this fixture, and Pisa offered nothing to disturb that composure.
The second goal, just before half-time, was the moment that removed any residual doubt. Malen's 43rd-minute finish, assisted by Roma midfielder Devyne Rensch, doubled the lead and ensured Gasperini's side would go into the interval in complete control. Pisa had earned a yellow card for midfielder Idrissa Touré in the 21st minute — the only moment of friction they generated — but had created nothing of substance in attack. Matteo Tramoni, Pisa's highest-rated player on the night, worked within limited means, but the visitors' attacking structure gave him too little support.
Six minutes into the second half, Malen completed the hat-trick. MatÃas Soulé, the Roma forward, provided the assist in the 52nd minute to make it 3-0, and the match was effectively a formality from that point. Gasperini made his first substitution at half-time — Stephan El Shaarawy replacing Lorenzo Pellegrini — and continued to rotate freely once the result was beyond question, withdrawing Malen himself at the 78th minute. The Dutchman finished with a match rating of 9.2, the highest of any player on the pitch, and his three goals came across 78 minutes of work.
Pisa's problems were structural as much as they were circumstantial. Bianco's side arrived without a point from their last five matches, having conceded eleven goals across that run while scoring two. Against a Roma defence that included Daniele Ghilardi and Hermoso — both rated above 7.0 — and a goalkeeper in Mile Svilar who earned a 9.0 rating despite having almost nothing to do, Pisa's forward line had no realistic avenue. Tramoni was replaced in the 74th minute, and the double substitution Bianco made in the 54th — bringing on Ebenezer Akinsanmiro and Gabriele Piccinini — reflected an attempt to find something, anything, in midfield. Neither could alter the arithmetic.
Roma's form across their last five matches, including this result, reads as fifteen points from fifteen, with thirteen goals scored and two conceded. That is not a run built on fortunate results or weak opposition alone — wins at Bologna and Parma, and a home victory over Lazio, are woven into that sequence. The 73 points Roma have accumulated this season, from a record of 23 wins, 4 draws, and 11 defeats, place them third in Serie A. Pisa, with 18 points from 2 wins, 12 draws, and 24 defeats, sit twentieth.
Donyell Malen's evening deserves its own accounting. Three goals in 78 minutes against a side in freefall is one thing; the manner in which they were distributed — early, late in the first half, early in the second — suggests a player operating with consistent sharpness rather than a single fortunate burst. Rensch and Soulé each contributed an assist, and both earned ratings above 8.0 and 7.0 respectively before being substituted, but the night belonged to Malen in every meaningful sense.
A hat-trick from one forward and a clean sheet for Svilar: this fixture told two very different stories about where these clubs stand in April 2026, and neither story required embellishment.