Four Things We Learned: Nerves shredded in late, late win

Three points all that matters

After a disastrous start to the fixture, where they conceded a poor early goal, it was fantastic to see Roma recover successfully (scoring two goals in 72 seconds) to take a 2-1 lead into half time against Frosinone. The drama didn't end there, however, as the home side drew level with 10 minutes left, leaving Roma with an uphill struggle to bag a winner.

But with time running out and less than one minute remaining, Edin Dzeko proved the saviour, bundling home after Daniele De Rossi had found Stephan El Shaarawy with a sublime pass.

Although it was far from their best performance, it was one of those tricky away wins that could be absolutely crucial in the top four race, as the Giallorossi and AC Milan are looking like the main contenders in light of Lazio and Atalanta's recent slip ups.

Lorenzo Pellegrini summed up the importance of the result in his post-match comments, explaining: “It was vital that we won, we absolutely had to and I think you can see that in the way we celebrated.

"It’s a tough place to come, they very aggressive on a small pitch. We showed that we will keep on fighting, and in the end we got the result. Dropping two points would have been a big disappointment for everyone. We go into the derby with a few good results under our belt."

Roma target wide areas

With Frosinone defending in a narrow shape, this inherently left room on the flanks for Roma to utilise. Letting El Shaarawy and Diego Perotti, plus the full-backs Aleksandar Kolarov and Davide Santon, often receive under little pressure or in 1v1 situations, Roma produced some promising moments from their wing play.

Destabilising their opposition with their dribbling, tidy link play, overloads, underlapping or overlapping runs from the fullbacks or interchanges, Frosinone certainly had their hands full and often had to jeopardise their structure to try and combat Roma's mechanics.

To further complicate things for the Canaries' setup, the supporting movements of the likes of Dzeko and Pellegrini caused extra nuisance on who should mark who.

Opening up space for one another and showing strong understandings to manipulate their adversaries, their efforts out wide enabled them to manufacture some good openings on a regular basis, even if some poorly executed actions were made on occasion.

Pellegrini's vital contribution

Aside from being one of Roma's best performers in a stuttering performance, Pellegrini's vital contribution towards his team's second goal deserves special attention.

To start with, the athletic Italian bravely rose above Frosinone central defender, Bartosz Salamon, to not only win his header but perfectly find Dzeko with his flick-on.

Not one to sit back and admire his work, Pellegrini then immediately got on his bike and surged upfield. In the process, his run effectively opened a passing lane for Dzeko to find El Shaarawy, who subsequently received and unleashed a shot on goal.

Having determinedly continued his run into the box unmarked, Pellegrini was duly rewarded for his commitment with a tap-in after El Shaarawy's shot was only partially saved by Marco Sportiello.

Winning goal analysis

Entering into the final minute of stoppage time, the Giallorossi needed a moment of magic to propel them to victory. And that's precisely what they produced.

While Dzeko will take the plaudits, De Rossi's awareness and vision to find space to hit such a pinpoint first time through ball on his left foot was the catalyst for the dramatic winner.

Recognising De Rossi, who was captaining his beloved Roma for the 200th time, was in a position to play one of his customarily incisive through balls, El Shaarawy intelligently began his movement early to give him the cue he was an available option.

With a dynamic advantage over his opponent, El Shaarawy duly latched onto the flawlessly struck delivery, as his run in behind unbalanced Frosinone's backline.

El Shaarawy's run consequently forced Salamon to push out towards him, which significantly left Dzeko free to fire home El Shaarawy's accurate cutback to seal all three points.

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