Dybala set up all three of Malen’s goals, and Roma finished the opening weekend top of Serie A
Donyell Malen scored a hat-trick at the Stadio Olimpico and Paulo Dybala made every one of them. Niccolo Pisilli added a fourth, and Fabio Grosso’s first Serie A match as Fiorentina manager ended 4-0.
Aug 25, 2026
Paulo Dybala is 32, out of contract in 2027, and spent a good part of last year being discussed as a player Roma might move on before he signed an extension in July. On Monday night at the Stadio Olimpico he made three goals in the space of half an hour, all of them for the same man, and Roma finished the opening weekend of Serie A top of the table.
Donyell Malen scored all three. Niccolo Pisilli added a fourth. Fiorentina, under a new manager taking charge of his first league match, did not have a shot worth remembering.
Three goals, three assists, one supplier
The first came in the 27th minute, Dybala carrying the ball through midfield on a run that had people out of their seats before he had even released it, then finding Malen to finish. The second arrived in the 52nd, Malen driving his shot in after Dybala had picked him out again. The third landed on the hour, and by then it was starting to look like a routine the two of them had rehearsed.
Pisilli got the fourth in the 86th minute, bundling the ball in after it broke his way off Rolando Mandragora’s boot inside the area. That one owed something to luck. The first three did not.
Malen has been doing this since January
Malen arrived at Roma on loan from Aston Villa in January and scored 15 goals in 20 appearances across the back half of last season, which is the kind of return that turns a loan into a permanent deal. Roma made it permanent over the summer.
Gian Piero Gasperini has him playing off Dybala rather than in front of him, and on this evidence the pairing is the most straightforward thing about Roma’s attack. Malen makes the run, Dybala sees it. Fiorentina’s defenders spent an hour watching the same two players do the same thing to them and could not work out where to stand.
A bad first night for Grosso
Fabio Grosso took charge of Fiorentina for his first Serie A match and got a chastening one. His side were pushed back from early on, gave the ball away in places they could not afford to, and offered almost nothing going the other way. Moise Kean came on in the 63rd minute and it made no visible difference.
Fiorentina sit 20th after one round, which means nothing in late August and will mean plenty if the performances stay like this. Grosso has a week to find some answers before the next one.
Top after one game
The win, in front of 67,598 at the Olimpico, put Roma above the defending champions Inter on goal difference at the end of matchday one. Nine of the ten opening fixtures produced a winner, with only Como and Udinese drawing, so the table is mostly a list of teams on three points and Roma are at the head of it on the strength of a clean sheet.
Being top after a single round is worth nothing in itself. What Gasperini will care about more is that his best player spent ninety minutes proving he still decides games, and that the striker he committed to in the summer scored three in his first outing of the season.