Roma beats Verona to move 2nd in Serie A ahead of Napoli’s mouthwatering match at Milan

MILAN (AP) — Artem Dovbyk scored his first goal of the season on his first start for Roma as he set the Giallorossi on the way to a 2-0 win over Hellas Verona, which was left to rue one of the misses of the season.

Gian Piero Gasperini continued his almost perfect start to life in the Italian capital — after nine years in charge of Atalanta — by winning all but one of his six matches in charge of Roma.

Roma moved second, level on points with Serie A leader Napoli ahead of the defending champion’s match at AC Milan later Sunday.

Roma was full of confidence heading into the match following last weekend’s derby win against Lazio and the midweek victory over Nice in the Europa League.

And it got off to the perfect start when Dovbyk headed Zeki Celik’s cross into the bottom right corner in the seventh minute.

Verona should have leveled in the 28th when Domagoj Bradaric’s low cross was deflected into the path of an unmarked Gift Orban, who just had to cushion the ball into an empty goal but instead he somehow contrived to hit the crossbar.

The visitors continued to miss opportunities before Matías Soulé finished off a counterattack in the 79th minute to all but seal the match for Roma.

There was more misery for Orban in stoppage time when he found the back of the net but it was ruled out because the ball had grazed his arm before he headed it in.

Disallowed goals

Fiorentina forward Moise Kean had two goals disallowed for offside in an entertaining 0-0 draw in a derby match at Pisa.

Henrik Meister thought he had scored a stunning goal for Pisa but that too was ruled out for handball in the buildup.

Pisa forward Juan Cuadrado, who played for Fiorentina between 2012-15, also hit the post.

Both Fiorentina and promoted Pisa are still searching for their first Serie A wins of the season.

Earlier, Sassuolo beat Udinese 3-1.

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