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Mourinho’s men bounced back from their shock loss in the Coppa Italia with a win over Tyronne Ebuehi’s Empoli.
AS Roma kept their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive with a comfortable victory over Empoli on Saturday evening.
Roma needed a response after suffering a shock home defeat to Cremonese in their Coppa Italia quarter-final clash on Wednesday.
Mourinho had received criticism for resting some of his key players for the clash, but he started his strong side against Empoli, with Dybala returning to the lineup.
Roma gets the job done in first half
The change did work as Dybala set up the two goals to give Roma a comfortable win over Cristian Zanetti’s men.
Roma started the game like a team on a mission, and it showed in their play as they took the lead inside two minutes, through Roger Ibanez.
The Brazilian put the capital club ahead as he rose highest to head in a corner kick from Dybala. Four minutes later, it was 2-0 as Dybala’s corner kick once again found Tammy Abraham, who headed past Guglielmo Vicario in Empoli’s goal.
Abraham’s goal effectively wrapped up the game for Roma after just six minutes of play, but Mourinho’s men pushed for more as Empoli struggled to deal with their opponent’s set pieces.
I Giallorossi almost made it three just before the half-hour mark as Ibanez connected to Dybala’s corner again, but Vicario pushed his effort over the bar.
Abraham was the next to go close again, but the English man could not direct his header at goal following Lorenzo Pellegrini’s freekick.
Roma went into the break with a two-goal cushion but Empoli resumed the second half, dominating possession.
Empoli's possession amount to nothing
However, for all their ball play, it was Roma that almost extended their lead, but Vicario made a triple save from Dybala, Pellegrini and Abraham.
Empoli dominated the latter moments of the game but the damage had already been done, as Roma held on to their win.
The result sees Roma move to third with 40 points, the same as second-place Inter, who play AC Milan in Sunday’s derby.
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