Keys to Victory: Lazaro eventually puts Pomigliano to bed

The winning momentum continued for Roma Women on Saturday, as they shook off a challenge from Pomigliano to claim an eighth consecutive Serie A Femminile victory.

Extending their best ever run of form in the league, Roma came out on top by a 5-2 scoreline after a game that ebbed and flowed but eventually swung in their favour.

Having dominated the early stages, Roma surprisingly fell behind, but equalised and got themselves in front before the break.

Once again, they were pegged back against their expectations towards the start of the second half, but went on to regain their lead and see out the final minutes more comfortably after extending it.

Continuing their push for a top-two finish ahead of a tricky run of fixtures in the Serie A calendar, Roma displayed further positive signs on their route to victory.

Key Moment

Pomigliano deserved credit for their performance, since they made it less of a routine win for Roma than may have been expected.

Each time it looked like Roma were ready to drive home their advantage, their visitors kept fighting back. For example, Emilie Haavi’s first goal on the stroke of half-time to make it 2-1 to Roma seemed like an important moment - but it would be Pomigliano who struck first after the break.

Thus, when Haavi scored again just before the hour-mark, there were no guarantees that her side would see out the win. Fortunately, they could breathe more easily when Paloma Lazaro made it 4-2.

The Spaniard’s first goal of the game was the one that finally took the wind out of Pomigliano’s sails. It was the most impressive from a team perspective too, even if Roma’s first goal, via Annamaria Serturini, bettered it in terms of the individual finish.

Manuela Giugliano, whose through balls were causing problems and opening up attacks all throughout the game, picked out Haavi, who resisted the temptation to shoot again from a similar angle to the one from which she had scored 12 minutes earlier and instead sent the ball across goal for Lazaro.

The striker timed her run well to pick out a pocket of space and meet the path of Haavi’s pass just in time to tap the ball home.

From that point on, Roma had allayed any threat of a comeback – and it would be themselves who scored the next (and final) goal of the game.

Key Player

Setting up Lazaro’s first goal was just one of many positive involvements from winter signing Haavi, who is continuing to justify why the club brought her to Italian football.

Once again switching with Serturini between either flank, the Norwegian maintained the momentum she has been building in her early Roma career by making an impact in the wide areas.

She got in the right place at the right time to give the Giallorosse the lead for the first time in the match with a header from a tight angle just before the interval, and displayed composure to earn her side the advantage again when she made it 3-2.

The assist for Lazaro was another highlight that followed for Haavi, who could capitalise on the varying spaces left by the Pomigliano defence and the way she was picked out by teammates like Giugliano and Giada Greggi from midfield.

Not even two months have passed since Roma signed Haavi, but it already feels like she has been a settled member of this team for some time.

Key Decision

Another recent arrival who had a lesser – but still meaningful – impact on the game was defender Beata Kollmats.

She came on for just her second appearance – and Serie A debut – since joining the club one month after Haavi.

It was part of a double substitution just after Haavi’s second goal, which appeared to have been in the pipeline even before it.

When centre-back Kollmats and full-back Angelica Soffia entered the fray, it signalled a switch to a back four for the last half an hour. The motivations for such a switch may have been different in the first place, given that Roma were level when Alessandro Spugna sent them to get ready but ahead by the time they came on, but the way the side controlled proceedings after suggested it was justified regardless.

Kollmats quickly settled into the action, which is not always easy for a new player and especially a defender, let alone when the whole team is changing system.

Alongside Elena Linari at centre-half, she helped ensure Roma did not concede again.

Key Fact

From there on in, Roma could concentrate on building their lead – and Lazaro put the icing on the cake with her brace late on.

Her first goal was the tap-in, of which the importance has already been stated, before the second saw her play a one-two (with the slight help of a deflection on the return pass) with Andressa Alves before a first-time finish into the bottom corner.

In doing so, Lazaro became the first ever Roma Women player to score braces in consecutive matches, after also netting a double in the first-leg win over Como in the Coppa Italia quarter-final the week before.

She has also established herself as the player with the highest number of games with multiple goals for Roma, with this being her fourth ever brace for the club.

It was the reward for another hard-working performance from the front by the centre-forward, who subsequently moved level with Andressa – in fewer games – as the club’s second-highest scorer of all-time after Serturini.

Just four minutes separated her strikes, representing the shortest ever timeframe between two goals by the same player in a Roma Women match.

But beyond that, Lazaro led the line well enough to have an influence all across the 81 minutes for which she was on the pitch.

Her goals rounded out an important win for Roma ahead of the second leg of their Como cup clash, and then games against the four other members of the current top five in Serie A, as a big month-and-a-half awaits for a team tasked with replicating these recent results in games of greater magnitude.

Follow Samuel Bannister on Twitter: @SamBanno1