AS Roma opened their Serie A campaign at home with a 4-0 demolition of Fiorentina, and the result was shaped almost entirely by one partnership: Roma forward Donyell Malen scoring three times by the 60th minute, each goal constructed by Paulo Dybala's service.
The opener arrived in the 27th minute, Dybala threading through for Malen to convert and break the deadlock. What followed was less a contest than a controlled dismantling. Malen struck again in the 52nd minute — seven minutes into the second half — to double Roma's lead, and then completed his hat-trick in the 60th, again assisted by Dybala. Three goals, three assists, the same two names on every line of the scoresheet. By the time Roma coach Gian Gasperini withdrew Malen in the 68th minute, the match was settled and the substitution read more as management than necessity. Dybala followed him off in the 79th, his evening's work long complete.
The architecture of those three goals tells the story of the afternoon. Dybala, operating across 79 minutes, finished with a rating of 9.3 and three assists — a performance that was less about individual brilliance than about the consistency of his decision-making. Every time Roma moved into the final third in that central corridor, Fiorentina's shape appeared unable to contain the combination. Malen, for his part, was on the pitch for 68 minutes and left with a perfect 10.0 rating. The hat-trick was completed before the hour, which means Roma's third goal arrived while Fiorentina still had their starting structure largely intact — the Viola's triple substitution came only in the 62nd and 63rd minutes, after the damage was done.
Fiorentina, managed by Fabio Grosso, arrived at the Olimpico without a Serie A point to their name and left in the same condition. Their starting eleven showed an unusual midfield-heavy configuration, and the personnel choices — Franco Mastantuono, Nicolò Fagioli, and Marco Brescianini in central areas — did not produce the defensive solidity needed to contain Roma's movement between the lines. Fagioli collected a yellow card in the 30th minute, between Roma's first and second goals, and was substituted out in the 62nd. Mastantuono, rated 6.3 across his 63 minutes, was also replaced at that point. The best-rated Fiorentina player on the day was substitute Christ Inao Oulaï, who came on in the 62nd minute and earned a 6.9 across his 26 minutes — a detail that reflects how little the starting eleven offered rather than how much the substitute contributed.
The scoreline also carries a structural footnote: Niccolò Pisilli, introduced as a substitute for Roma in the 79th minute, added a fourth goal in the 86th. Pisilli's nine minutes produced a goal and a 7.6 rating, a cameo that extended the margin and underlined the depth Gasperini has available even when his primary attacking pair has already been rested.
Roma sit on three points from their opening fixture, with a goal difference of plus four. Fiorentina's Serie A record reads one played, one lost, zero scored, four conceded — a difficult start that Grosso's side will need to address quickly. The head-to-head record between these clubs, across the two most recent meetings in the data, reads Roma wins two, Fiorentina wins none.
A hat-trick completed before the hour, three assists from a single player, and a clean sheet: Roma's opening statement was not merely a victory but a demonstration of what this Gasperini side intends to look like when everything connects.