European football: lifelong Roma fan Pellegrini takes down Lazio in derby

Claudio Ranieri extended his perfect record in the Italian capital derby as Roma beat Lazio 2-0 in Serie A to give the Giallorossi a much-needed boost in what has been a difficult season.

Roma’s captain and lifelong club fan, Lorenzo Pellegrini, scored a superb opener with a curling shot from the edge of the area to end his long wait for a goal. Then Alexis Saelemaekers finished off a counterattack to give Roma a two-goal advantage after 18 minutes.

Pellegrini has been subjected to severe criticism by Roma’s fans this season, and his goal lifted the pressure on Roma, who have now won three of their last five Serie A matches to move up to 10th place. Lazio remain fourth.

Ranieri improved his record to five wins in five derbies as Roma’s coach. He’s the team’s third manager this season after Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric were both fired. His other derby wins came during his first stint as Roma’s coach from 2009-11. He also coached his home-town club briefly in 2019.

Ranieri has also won the three other big derbies in Italy in Milan, Turin and Genoa as coach of Inter, Juventus and Sampdoria, respectively.

He helped Cagliari avoid relegation last season and had said that would be his final club job but he could not turn down Roma when he was called in to restore order in November. Ranieri’s contract calls for him to step up into an executive role after this season, from which he will have a say in choosing the next coach.

A car went up in flames outside the Stadio Olimpico about an hour before kick-off after being struck by fireworks as rival fans attempted to approach each other.

Also on Sunday, Cagliari came back from a goal down to win 2-1 at last-place Monza with goals from Nadir Zortea and Roberto Piccoli. Torino v Parma and Lecce v Genoa finished 0-0.

A stoppage-time goal by forward Ousmane Dembélé earned Paris Saint-Germain a 1-0 win over Monaco in the French Super Cup on Sunday as the Ligue 1 champions lifted the trophy for the third consecutive season.

Record 13-time winners PSG, who faced last season’s Ligue 1 runners-up after the Parisians had won both the league and French Cup, won the competition for the 11th time in the last 12 years.

In a lively encounter at Doha’s Stadium 974, made from 974 recycled shipping containers for the 2022 World Cup, PSG had 27 chances – nine of them on target – without breaking the deadlock. But Dembélé ensured the game did not go to penalties when he sealed the win two minutes into injury time, netting inside the far post after Fabián Ruiz fed him with a neat pass across the face of the goal.

Gianluigi Donnarumma made some crucial saves on his return to the side after sustaining a horror injury to his face in PSG’s 4-2 win against Monaco in Ligue 1 last month.