The Talking Point: El Shaarawy shows sharpness in first start

In his first start since rejoining Roma in January, Stephan El Shaarawy put in an impressive performance in victory over Braga that underlines just how much of an impact the 28-year-old can have on the remainder of the Giallorossi’s campaign.

Following 27 minutes of action across two encouraging cameos off the bench, El Shaarawy was itching for his second full debut at the club.

“Tomorrow is an important game for the team but also for me for so many reasons: to get minutes under my belt, to build some confidence and, above all, to help the team qualify for the next round,” he told media before the game.

And, 24 hours later, El Shaarawy had confidently ticked all of those boxes - having played 60 minutes of Roma’s 3-1 win over Braga.

It was a win that not only secured their safe passage into the last-16 of the Europa League, but also saw the Italy international put in a display full of verve and attacking endeavour.

It took him just 23 minutes to instigate Edin Dzeko’s opener, with El Shaarawy’s superb curling effort from outside the box beating Tiago Sa but not the post, before landing in Dzeko’s path to tuck home the opener.

A quarter of an hour later, El Shaarawy carved out Roma’s next best chance of the half with a pinpoint cutback that found Pedro free inside the Braga penalty area - but it was the Spaniard that this time was denied by the woodwork.

El Shaarawy had the bit between his teeth throughout his 60 minutes of work back at the Stadio Olimpico and was rightly pleased with his performance.

He said after the game: “Today it was a great performance from everyone. It’s a shame that shot hit the post, but Edin finished it off anyway so it all worked out well in the end!

“I’m happy we got the win. I’m really eager to get back to playing and to deliver in the same way I did when I arrived here the first time back in 2016.”

After joining the club in 2016 - again in the January transfer window, albeit with more minutes of first-team football in his legs - El Shaarawy went on to score in each of his first two appearances and ended the Serie A campaign with eight goals and two assists in 16 outings.

It was some return and on the evidence of this maiden start second time around, there is no reason El Shaarawy can’t repeat those numbers.

El Shaarawy immediately looks a natural fit in Fonseca’s system; operating with menace from the inside left position on Thursday night as he showed in the two aforementioned moments of first half magic that - like Henrikh Mkhitaryan does to such great effect - he can be a threat on both the inside and outside of opposition defenders.

His movement off the ball was superb throughout, as El Shaarawy pulled the Braga defensive lines out of shape by dropping deeper to collect the ball in a pocket of space between defence and midfield one minute and running in behind the next.

Not only that, he was also one of Roma’s best players in possession; completing 15 of his 16 passes and while El Shaarawy admitted post match that he needs to “rediscover my sharpness a bit”, he is clearly enjoying life back in Rome which can only be a good thing as the Giallorossi enter the business end of 2020-21.

“To be playing alongside top players, great talents, it makes it easy to enjoy yourself,” El Shaarawy explained. “This team has quality, personality and an identity – we look for that weakness to then really hurt the other team.”

A fit, healthy and happy El Shaarawy will surely inflict a fair amount of that pain himself on opponents both home and abroad before the end of the season.