Roma 3-1 Empoli: De Rossi strikes in 500th appearance

Daniele De Rossi and Mohamed Salah followed the Bosnian’s lead with efforts of their own and, with the outcome and destination of all three points confirmed, Liechtenstein global Marcel Buchel opened his account for Empoli to give the travelling fans something to cheer about.

Buchel did pull a goal back for Empoli six minutes later, the on-loan Juventus midfielder beating Wojciech Szczesny with an angled drive from the edge of the box, but Roma had done enough.

“When you win it’s always a ideal night, and I’m even happier I scored a goal especially when I don’t score that often”, said De Rossi, whose only regret was scoring under an empty “Curva Sud”.

WHEN WE TALK about one-club players, Daniele de Rossi should be high on the list.

“Aside from being my personal dream, it’s the dream of the whole city to win the Scudetto. We deserve that next step and only time will tell if this is the right year”.

Empoli remained 16th, three points clear of the drop zone ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.

It is worth mentioning that Salah will return to Florence next week as Fiorentina host Roma on Sunday, but up first is an away tie against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Substitute Radja Nainggolan released Gervinho with a superb through ball on the left and the Ivorian marksman crossed low for Salah to rifle a left-foot shot into the roof of the net.

Empoli barely had time to recover from going a goal down before it found itself two goals behind when De Rossi sent Pjanic’s corner across into the far side of the net with a glancing header.