Roma squeezed past Torino 1-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in a tight, evenly-contested Serie A fixture on Sunday evening. Tammy Abraham, who last scored a league goal at home in another narrow win over Udinese back in September, returned to the scoresheet in front of attending home fans.
The former Chelsea forward received a fine through ball from Henrikh Mkhitaryan just inside the box. He eluded his marker before slotting the ball past Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in the 32nd minute to give Roma a precious three points against a well-organized opponent.
Abraham has tallied four Serie A goals this season, one less than Roma’s top-scorer Lorenzo Pellegrini. Going into this matchday, the English striker put two past Zorya in midweek’s crushing 4-0 victory in the Europa Conference League.
With Abraham starting to hit his stride, Roma’s hopes of maintaining their top-four hopes alive should increase. Sunday’s victory kept them within a three-point distance of fourth-placed Atalanta, leaving the keenly-battled top-four race wide open.
During the post-match interview, Abraham explained what it meant for him to score in front of the home crowd.
“Like I said since I got here, I love this club. They made me feel like family. There’s no better feeling than scoring here in front of your fans and winning the game,” he told DAZN, as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
Meanwhile, after overseeing his side going from back-to-back Serie A defeats to a brace of league victories without conceding, manager Jose Mourinho delivered his verdict of the game in a true ‘Special One’ fashion.
“It was a plan to sit a bit deeper, yes. Their centre-backs spread out and it’s not easy to press them with two strikers, so we had to show patience,” he said (via TUTTOmercatoWEB).
“I expected to score a few more goals this evening, even if Torino are strong defensively. I like winning in this way, this victory I enjoy more than a 5-0, because it means you had to make the effort, suffer as a team.
“When you are playing against a team that man-marks, you need mobility, so our players had to keep alternating position. Keep doing that, sooner or later they will make a mistake.
“The important thing is to defend well, then the goals will arrive eventually. I like this type of victory. We dominated and controlled Genoa and Zorya, but this was a different match.”