Malen has five goals in two games, and nobody has scored against Roma yet
Roma won 4-0 at Lecce with two more from Donyell Malen. Two games into Serie A they have scored eight and conceded none.
Sep 1, 2026
Lecce had the ball in their own half four minutes into Monday’s game and gave it to Donyell Malen, who drilled it into the net. By the 25th minute Roma were three up. It finished 0-4 at the Via del Mare, and Gian Piero Gasperini’s side have now played two Serie A matches this season, scored eight and conceded none.
Malen has five in two games
Malen got his second in the 23rd minute and Matias Soule added a third two minutes after that, which settled the game before the half-hour. Rodrigo Mora, on as a substitute in the 60th, scored five minutes later from a Gianluca Mancini pass. It was the 19-year-old’s first goal since he joined from Porto.
Roma opened the season with a 4-0 win over Fiorentina in which Malen scored all three of the goals Paulo Dybala set up. Two more on Monday takes him to five in two matches. Since he arrived from Aston Villa in January he has scored 19 times in 20 Serie A games.
Nobody has scored against them either
The goals get the attention, but the other half of Roma’s start is the two clean sheets. The opposition matters here. Fiorentina are bottom of Serie A, have not scored this season and have conceded seven, and Lecce are 13th. Roma have beaten the two of them by an aggregate of eight without reply, which tells you they are ruthless against poor sides and not much else yet.
Six clubs have won both their games. Roma, Inter, Milan, Juventus, Atalanta and Lazio are all on six points, and Roma top the lot on goal difference, plus eight against Inter’s plus four. That is a lead built on the margin of two wins rather than on anything settled, and it will not survive one bad afternoon.
Lecce sit 13th
Lecce won their opening game and have now lost this one by four, which leaves them on three points from two. Giving the ball to Malen inside your own half is the specific mistake of the night, but a side that concedes three in 25 minutes at home has a wider problem than one misplaced pass.
Serie A returns on Saturday with the third round of fixtures. The interesting question about Roma is not whether Malen keeps scoring at this rate, because nobody does. It is what the team looks like the first week he does not.