Roma left Como with a point and a warning. Donyell Malen was sent off in the 53rd minute of Sunday’s 0-0 draw, and what had been a match Roma were beginning to control quickly became a night of damage limitation.
The result kept Roma unbeaten through their first six matches and preserved a fourth clean sheet, but the cleanest number from the day was the one on the scoreboard: 0-0. In a season that has already produced goals elsewhere, this was the Serie A season’s first scoreless draw, and it came with Roma playing a stretch of the match a man down.
Pierluigi Gollini was central to that point. Making his first start of the season in only his second appearance in all competitions since arriving at Roma prior to last season, he made four saves and finished with the highest match rating. Roma needed that sort of certainty because the first half had pointed in their direction before the red card changed the balance of play.
That shift matters because Roma had been carrying a strong early-season return into the afternoon. They had 14 points through six matches, only one fewer than the 15 they had at the same stage last season, when the split was five wins and one loss. The gap is small, but it shows how fine the margins are in a race where every dropped point can reshape the picture.
There was also a defensive edge to the draw that went beyond Gollini. Nahuel Molina led Roma with three defensive contributions, a small but useful sign of how the side had to work once the match tilted toward survival. Roma were more dangerous before the sending-off, but once Malen went down, the task became straightforward: protect the point and leave with the unbeaten run intact.
What remains unanswered is the red card itself. Malen’s dismissal in the 53rd minute altered the entire game, but the cause of it is not clear from the match record here. For now, the facts are enough to say that Roma escaped Como with their run alive, their clean sheet count growing, and Gollini stepping into the spotlight when the match demanded a keeper’s night.
