Four Things We Learned: Timely tune-up for Porto in Verona

Perfect Champions League precursor

Roma couldn't have dreamt of a better build-up to their colossal Champions League clash with FC Porto this week, as they produced an accomplished display to see off Chievo Verona 3-0.

Goals from a free-flowing Stephan El Shaarawy, Edin Dzeko and Aleksandar Kolarov were enough to ensure Roma extended their unbeaten run in Serie A to six matches. In addition, having now scored 14 in their last six matches, their comprehensive victory now sees them move into third for most goals scored in the league (at the time of writing).

Crucially Roma also kept a clean sheet, which has proved quite elusive this season, in what was a solid performance on both sides of the ball.

Pleasing defensive signs

Recording just their fifth clean sheet of their league campaign, it was really promising to see the Giallorossi shutout their plucky opposition. Dealing with some challenging situations that required a cool head and some excellent decision making, there was plenty of positives to be drawn from their collective defensive exertions.

The central defensive partnership of Ivan Marcano and Federico Fazio did a tidy job of tracking Mariusz Stepinski and Filip Djordjevic's runs, with them limiting them to low percentage shots and cutting them off on many occasions. The fullbacks also undertook their tasks with conviction, as Rick Karsdorp and Kolarov tucked into their duties with intensity and intelligence to nullify their adversaries.

Defending in a 4-1-4-1 for the most part, Roma also protected their backline well by cutting off key central passing lanes, supporting each other, picking up their marking assignments and by generally positioning themselves cohesively to limit the Flying Donkeys' effectiveness.

Although they weren't absolutely perfect in this phase, the aforementioned upsides, in tandem with some forceful counterpressing and the forwards' willingness to track back vigorously, offered much room for optimism, something demonstrated by Eusebio Di Francesco's comments on the topic.

"There are times when you need to stay tight as a unit to stop the opposition picking the ball up between the lines," he said.

"When you stay compact, you risk getting caught out by balls played in behind but we read the game really well tonight in almost every situation, especially defensively. The forwards' contribution is vital – we mustn't let ourselves get stretched at certain points of the game."

Advancing midfielders cause issues

Deploying his 4-3-3 formation again for this fixture, Di Francesco gave his two number eights, Bryan Cristante and Nicolo Zaniolo, plenty of attacking licence to use their athleticism and smarts to push into dangerous advanced positions.

Always on the lookout to venture upfield and cause issues for Chievo's stopping structure, they did a top job of finding space for themselves. They especially hurt the home side with their ability to exploit spaces in between the lines and in the channels behind Chievo's fullbacks that become available when they stepped up to track Roma's wingers.

The examples below serve as a testament to their work in this regard, as they persistently wreaked havoc to destabilise their opponents.

Left-sided mechanics

Roma gained plenty of offensive impetus down their left, as El Shaarawy and Kolarov were ably accompanied by the support of nearby midfielder, Zaniolo, and centre forward, Dzeko, to persistently manipulate their opposition.

By performing shrewd rotations with one another and using opposite movements, this produced confusion for Chievo in regard to who should mark who when they interchanged positions. Whether it was Dzeko and El Shaarawy, Kolarov and El Shaarawy or Zaniolo and El Shaarawy switching roles, the Wolves frequently bypassed their foes through their complementary relationships with one another.

Furthermore, by populating this area so astutely, this enabled Roma to manufacture vital positional and numerical superiorities to additionally enhance their chances of breaking down Chievo's wide defensive strategy.

All statistics provided by InStat.