Malen’s hat-trick, Dybala’s three assists: Roma dismantle Fiorentina

Roma 4-0 Fiorentina was as one-sided as the scoreline — 2.77 expected goals to 0.28, 61% of the ball, thirteen shots inside the box — and it ran almost entirely through a single partnership. Donyell Malen scored three; Paulo Dybala assisted all three. Fiorentina, with 0.28 xG, barely laid a glove on the game.

Dybala was the conductor. He teed up Malen on 27, again on 52, and a third time on 60, each ball threaded into the space Fiorentina’s defence kept conceding. Malen’s movement and Dybala’s vision made a hat-trick look routine — three chances created, three finished, a forward line clicking from the first whistle.

Once Malen made it three inside the hour the contest was over, and Niccolò Pisilli added a fourth on 86 to round off the afternoon. Fiorentina never threatened the reply their possession share hinted at; 0.28 xG across 90 minutes is the mark of a side that was second best everywhere it mattered.

Roma will not always find a Dybala this sharp or a Malen this clinical, but on this evidence the pairing is a weapon. Four goals, a clean sheet and a hat-trick hero — the sort of statement afternoon that sets a tone. Fiorentina, comprehensively outplayed, have plenty to fix.