Four Things We Learned: Roma enter the international break on a roll

Fourth straight win secured

Roma's hard-fought win over Crotone saw them head into the international break in perfect fashion, as the triumph served as their fourth consecutive win and also guaranteed they'll go into the break in third place in the table.

On a day where Eusebio Di Francesco made six changes to his side, he left the Stadio Ezio Scida content – thanks to goals from Radja Nainggolan and Stephan El Shaarawy, plus the fact Roma recorded their 13th Serie A clean sheet, being especially key highlights.

“It’s perhaps not been the case in every game we’ve played, but we’ve shown that the team is growing,” he said. “We had a great first half, due to our decision-making: we played well and were patient, because they were compact and sat deep.

“We kept hold of the ball and eventually got what we needed with a lovely move, finished off by Stephan El Shaarawy.”

El Shaarawy's exciting return to form

Speaking ahead of kick-off, Di Francesco showed tremendous confidence in El Shaarawy by asserting he'd start the talented attacker despite him suffering a drop in form of late.

"Stephan will start the game – he's fit and raring to show what he can do," he said. "He hasn't scored or produced any match-winning displays for a while but I'm sure he'll get back to being the player he was at the start of the season. He's determined to do well and I hope tomorrow is the day he gets his name on the score sheet once again."

An inspired El Shaarawy repaid his manager's faith with a fine display that included his artfully finished goal. Moreover, by the numbers, his three shots, two key passes and one successful dribble, in combination with his evasive movement, only amplified what an asset he was for the Giallorossi.

Goal analysis: El Shaarawy's brilliant movement key in opener

Roma's opener was an exquisitely crafted goal, as the away side parlayed slick passing, intelligent movement and lethal execution to manipulate their opposition to create the opportunity for El Shaarawy to score.

To start with, El Shaarawy's clever infield drift into the 10 spaces sees him afford Maxime Gonalons with a nice central option. Lorenzo Pellegrini recognises this immediately and begins his astute run so he'll be in a perfect position for El Shaarawy to lay the ball off to him.

Pellegrini then receives El Shaarawy's deft one-touch lay off, thus rewarding Pellegrini's clever movement, that crucially meant he inherited possession facing towards his own goal. This subsequently allowed him to enjoy an excellent view of his options, where he spots up Aleksandar Kolarov completely free on the left.

Then to cap off this intricately worked passage, El Shaarawy's brilliantly timed run, which was vitally initiated on the blindside of his marker, Marco Capuano, puts him in an ideal body orientation to tuck home Kolarov's incisive cross comfortably.

Second goal analysis: Second ball superiority decisive

In the lead up to Roma's second, many elements came together to provide a sound foundation for Nainggolan to use his wizardry to find the back of the net. Alessandro Florenzi’s dynamic run proved the catalyst, as he draws two Crotone defenders prior to challenging for a header, therefore ensuring Kevin Strootman and Nainggolan are terrifically placed to win the second ball in a 2v1 vs. Ahmad Benali.

Unsurprisingly, Nainggolan wins the knocked down second ball, and takes full advantage of the 2v1 to find Florenzi with his forward pass.

Florenzi then plays a pass back to the Belgian, who has now snuck in between the lines, and used the newly generated 3v2 supremacy shrewdly, which gives him enough time and space to balance himself, before rifling home a powerful long range effort on his opposite foot to seal the victory.