Como Fire 19 Shots, Play Over Half an Hour With a Man Advantage, Still Can't Get Past Roma

The post denied Roma a goal in the 10th minute, and from there the match gradually fizzled out into a 0-0 draw that leaves a strange aftertaste: Como dominated, fired 19 shots and came away empty-handed at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia, while Roma finished with ten men and held on for a point in Serie A.

The first half went back and forth despite the home side's control. Almost as soon as the match kicked off, Paulo Dybala and Nico Paz tested the goalkeepers with shots that ended up in their hands, and Lucas da Cunha and Trevoh Chalobah also tried their luck from outside the box. But the clearest chance of the opening 45 fell to Roma: in the 10th minute, Lorenzo Pellegrini rattled the right post with a right-footed strike after an assist from Manu Koné. Shaken by that scare, Como gradually settled into the opponent's half and finished the first half with more possession and more chances, though still unable to beat Pierluigi Gollini.

The second half opened with Matías Soulé coming on for Pellegrini, but the game changed abruptly just seven minutes later. In the 52nd minute, Donyell Malen saw a red card for Roma, and everything that followed was Roma hanging on a man down for nearly 40 minutes. Como, with more room to work and the extra man, piled on the attempts: Máximo Perrone, Tasos Douvikas and, above all, Nico Paz, who tried several times from outside the box and once from the center, including a shot that sailed over the crossbar in the 76th minute. Jacobo Ramón also had his chances, first with a shot that drifted wide to the left and then with a header that went just past the right post.

With Roma pinned back, Como kept pushing in the closing minutes: Trevoh Chalobah, Martin Baturina and Jesús Rodríguez all tried their luck without success, and even in stoppage time Douvikas had two headed attempts that didn't go in. Roma, for their part, could barely generate anything going forward, with Dybala the exception as he unleashed a shot from more than 30 meters out that crashed off the crossbar and was saved. In the end, neither the extra man nor nearly 20 minutes of relentless pressure was enough for Como to break the deadlock.

The Numbers Behind a Dominant Display With Nothing to Show for It

The match statistics tell the story clearly: Como controlled possession and fired off far more shots, but ended up with the same number of goals as their opponent.

Our post-match expected goals estimate, calculated from the shots taken in the game, gives Como an xG of 2.041 against Roma's 0.978, a gap that confirms what played out on the field: Cesc Fàbregas's side created considerably more danger, but poor finishing, or Gollini's resistance, kept them from turning it into goals.

The result also diverges from our pre-match projections. Beforehand, we gave Como a 41% chance to win, against 30% for Roma and a 29% chance of a draw, with combined expected goals of 2.64 (1.43 for the home side and 1.21 for the visitors). A scoreless draw, with Roma down to ten men from the start of the second half, wasn't exactly the most likely outcome on paper.

What the Point Means in the Standings

In the Serie A table, Roma entered this match in third place with 14 points from six games played, while Como sat in sixth place with 11 points, also from six matches. The gap between the two sides before this draw was 3 points, and today's result splits a point apiece without changing that picture too dramatically: Roma remain unbeaten on the season, while Como, who threw everything at it for more than half an hour with a man advantage, are left with the feeling that this point could have been three.