Lecce 0-4 Roma: a ruthless first half wins the game inside 25 minutes

Roma did not so much win at the Via del Mare as end the contest before it began. Donyell Malen struck in the 4th minute, doubled the lead on 23, and Matías Soulé made it three just two minutes later. Inside 25 minutes, Roma had scored three times and the game was effectively finished. This was a masterclass in the away-day kill: strike early, strike often, and take the crowd out of it before the hosts can find any rhythm. Everything that followed was game management.

The story of the opening half was Donyell Malen. His two goals in the space of twenty minutes set the tone and exposed a Lecce defence caught cold. Roma's approach was built on quick, direct attacking — turning half-chances into goals with a clinical edge that Lecce simply could not match. With a two-goal cushion so early, Roma could sit off, invite pressure and hit the spaces behind — the ideal script for a side comfortable defending a lead away from home.

The expected-goals figures underline how one-sided this was: 3.35 for Roma against just 0.74 for Lecce. Roma turned 15 shots — 10 of them from inside the box — into a four-goal haul, while Lecce's 36% possession never translated into meaningful threat. Rodrigo Mora added the fourth on 65 minutes, and even a cameo from Paulo Dybala off the bench underlined the depth Roma had in reserve. This was control, not chaos: a side dominating chance quality and converting it.

For Roma, this is exactly the kind of away performance that builds a season — efficient, front-foot, and finished off early. For Lecce, conceding four at home with barely a threat of their own is a sobering afternoon. The scoreline is emphatic, and unlike some 4-0s, the underlying numbers offer the losing side no comfort at all: Roma were better in every phase, and the game was decided before the half-hour.