Roma's 37-minute blitz at Udinese raises the question: can they manage a full 90?

Roma's 5-2 win at Udinese on 31 October was effectively settled inside 37 minutes. Bryan Cristante headed the opener in the 10th, Rodrigo Mora made it two on 31 minutes, Donyell Malen added a third two minutes later, and Evan N'Dicka headed a fourth in the 37th. By half-time it was 4-0, and Roma had also struck the woodwork twice. The match was, as one preview had framed it, a potential trap game in Friuli. Roma turned it into a rout.

The raw numbers from FotMob tell the story of a side that was ruthless rather than merely busy. Roma's expected goals for the match were 2.76, against an average of 2.13 across their earlier 2026/27 fixtures in all competitions. Their open-play xG was 2.5, against an average of 1.57. They scored five goals from that 2.76, a goals-minus-xG figure of 2.24, where their earlier average this season was 0.0. In other words, this was not a typical Roma performance being repeated; it was an outlier of finishing efficiency, built on six big chances to Udinese's three and nine shots on target to seven.

Udinese, for their part, had 15 shots to Roma's 14 and seven corners to Roma's four. The possession split was 54-46 in Roma's favour. A casual reading of the shot count might suggest a closer contest than the scoreline. The big-chance and xG figures say otherwise: Roma created the better openings and took them.

What happened after the break is the detail worth examining. Udinese scored through Nicolò Zaniolo in the 50th minute and Matteo Palma in the 78th, before Daniele Ghilardi restored the three-goal margin in stoppage time. Roma's touches in the opposition box for the match were 20.0, against an average of 39.6 across their earlier 2026/27 matches. Their corners here were 4.0, against an average of 7.2. Those are match-level figures, not a half-by-half breakdown, so they cannot on their own prove that Roma's chance creation fell away specifically after half-time. What they do show is that this was a performance with less sustained presence in the final third than Roma have typically produced this season, even as the goals flowed.

That distinction matters. The first-half burst was real and decisive. The second-half concessions were also real. Whether the drop in territorial pressure was a deliberate easing off with a Champions League fixture against Manchester United looming, or a genuine concern about game management, is not something the available reporting settles. Roma made relatively little squad rotation ahead of that United match, with Paulo Dybala, Mile Svilar, Manu Koné and Lorenzo Pellegrini still out. The absences may have limited the options available to manage the closing stages; they may not.

Roma are third on 24 points after the win. Udinese's coach, Kosta Runjaic, is under mounting pressure. For Roma, the result keeps them near the top of Serie A and extends a run that includes a 4-2 win over Cagliari and a 3-3 draw at Napoli. The concern is not the scoreline in Udine; it is the shape of the performance. A side that can score four goals in 37 minutes and hit the woodwork twice in the same period has a high ceiling. A side that then concedes twice and sees its opposition-box presence sit well below its season average has a question to answer.

Gian Piero Gasperini's Roma have shown they can blow opponents away in bursts. The next matches, starting with Manchester United, will show whether they can also control a game once the burst is over.