Parma fell to AS Roma 2-3 at home on Sunday afternoon, a result that turned on two goals scored after the 87th minute — one from a substitute's run, one from the penalty spot — and left Carlos Cuesta García's side with three points from their last three matches.
Roma had led since the 22nd minute, when AS Roma forward Donyell Malen converted an assist from Paulo Dybala to give Gasperini's side the opener. Parma's response came almost immediately after the interval: Gabriel Strefezza, the Parma forward, levelled in the 47th minute with Hans Nicolussi Caviglia providing the assist. The equalizer arrived in a burst of energy that Parma could not sustain. Within a minute of scoring, Strefezza collected a yellow card, and six minutes later he was withdrawn — replaced by Mateo Pellegrino. Whether the substitution was precautionary or tactical, the effect was to remove the player who had just changed the match.
Roma reasserted control through their own substitutions. Niccolò Pisilli came on for Matías Soulé in the 58th minute, Neil El Aynaoui replaced Bryan Cristante a minute later, and the visitors' midfield was reshaped before the hour mark. Parma, meanwhile, made multiple changes between the 74th and 79th minutes — Franco Carboni, Sascha Britschgi, Pontus Almqvist, and Nahuel Estévez all introduced — and one of those changes produced the most dramatic moment of the match. In the 87th minute, Estévez assisted Parma midfielder Mandela Keita to make it 2-2, and for a few minutes the Tardini believed it had earned a point.
It had not. In the fourth minute of added time, Roma substitute Devyne Rensch — on since the 75th — scored from a Daniele Ghilardi assist to restore the visitors' lead. Then, in the ninth minute of added time, Britschgi was sent off for a second yellow, and Malen stepped up to convert the resulting penalty in the 101st minute. The Dutchman's brace was the decisive contribution: his opener had started the match, his penalty closed it.
Parma's evening encapsulates a recurring problem in their recent run. They have collected three points from their last three matches, conceding five goals across those fixtures. The pattern here was specific: a yellow card that accelerated a substitution, a defensive shape disrupted by multiple changes in quick succession, and a late red card that handed Roma the penalty that killed the contest. Cuesta García's side showed enough to equalise twice in spirit — once through Strefezza, once through Keita — but not enough to hold what they had earned.
Roma's form tells a different story. Gasperini's side have won all three of their last three matches, scoring nine goals and conceding two. The win at Parma was the least comfortable of that sequence — Bologna and Fiorentina were beaten more cleanly — but the capacity to score in the 90th minute and beyond, and to convert a late penalty under pressure, reflects a squad with depth and composure. Thirteen goals scored across their last five matches, against three conceded, is the arithmetic of a side that does not need to be at its best to win.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the one Parma equalised in the 87th minute and still lost.