Roma comes from behind in stoppage time to sink Atalanta at the Olimpico

Roma dominated from the opening whistle, fell behind early in the second half, and still walked away celebrating in stoppage time. The final score, 2-1 in the home side's favor, was settled between the 88th and 92nd minutes, as the Giallorossi flipped a match they had controlled almost entirely but that the scoreboard had refused to reflect.

The first blow came from Atalanta, and it landed just after the restart: in the 46th minute, moments after the second half kicked off, Éderson struck a right-footed shot from the center of the box that flew into the top corner. It was practically the only real threat from the Bergamo side all match, but it was enough to make it 0-1 and send Roma rowing against the current for more than 40 minutes.

The truth is Roma had spent the entire first half knocking on Marco Carnesecchi's door without reward: shots from Rodrigo Mora, Donyell Malen, Gianluca Mancini, Bryan Cristante, and Paulo Dybala came one after another, either saved by the keeper or narrowly off target. The teams went into the break level at 0-0 despite the home side already piling up an overwhelming edge in chances and corners.

Down a goal after Éderson's strike, Roma doubled down with attacking substitutions, bringing on Matías Soulé, Nahuel Molina, and Santiago Castro, who grew more influential as the game wore on. Castro had two glaring warning signs, hitting the post in the 63rd minute and the crossbar in the 87th, hints that an equalizer was coming. It finally arrived in the 88th minute: Mario Hermoso rose to head home the 1-1 equalizer in the middle of the box, off a corner delivered by Matías Soulé. The Olimpico had barely finished celebrating when, deep into stoppage time, in the 92nd minute, Soulé turned into the night's central figure, taking a pass from Paulo Dybala and finishing left-footed from the right side of the box for the final 2-1.

Stats that back up the dominance

The scoreline never quite matched the run of play. Roma controlled possession, created chance after chance, and racked up an enormous offensive output against an Atalanta side that barely threatened outside of the goal itself.

The post-match xG numbers, calculated from shot locations, back up that impression: Roma generated an estimated 3.74 expected goals to Atalanta's mere 0.81. A gap that paints a clearer picture of the match than the final score alone.

What the preview said, and what actually happened

Before kickoff, our projection gave Roma a 44% chance of winning, against 27% for Atalanta and 29% for a draw, with expected goals of 1.50 for the home side and 1.12 for the visitors. The outcome ended up matching that favoritism, though the road there was bumpier than expected: Roma had to come from behind in the closing stretch against a team that had gone ahead on its only real chance of the match.

In the standings, Roma arrived at this match as the league leader with a perfect record, nine points from three games with no losses, and remains there now with an even wider goal difference. Atalanta, meanwhile, had come in with six points from three outings and now sits three points behind its rival following this defeat.

The match leaves a clear picture: Roma dominated by every statistical measure, but needed two late strikes, one from Mario Hermoso and another from Matías Soulé, to turn that dominance into all three points at the Stadio Olimpico.