Roma defeated Bologna at the death in a hotly contested clash on Sunday. Our columnist looks at four key points from the contest...

Aleksandar Kolarov scored yet another free-kick, before Edin Dzeko headed home in the last minute to clinch three points for the Giallorossi - who had been reduced to 10-men by that point.

Stirring, character filled away win

Roma made it three wins in a row with a hard fought 2-1 win away against a Bologna side who had won eight straight home games heading into the match.

Showing plenty of fight and determination, Roma importantly never gave up on the win even when they went down to 10 men for the closing stages and in spite of some questionable refereeing decisions. Although they left it late, the Giallorossi were eventually rewarded for their persistence, with Edin Dzeko scoring in stoppage time to secure the vital victory.

After three games in a week, where Roma scored 10 goals and conceded three, Paulo Fonseca was full of praise for his troops afterwards.

"First off we deserved the win, because we played well and dominated the entire game," Fonseca said.

"Bologna had a number of counter-attacks in the second half and created a couple of chances, but we deserved the win on account of the character we showed.

“All of the players are happy. The team is pleased with the result and with how we played."

Pellegrini the press breaker

With Roma wanting to play out from the back at every available opportunity, Fonseca came out with a shrewd strategy to beat Bologna's press.

Seeing as Mattia Destro and Nicola Sansone would often be oriented towards Roma's central defenders and Roberto Soriano would monitor Bryan Cristante, Roma would look to play straight to right-back Alessandro Florenzi. In doing so, this consequently lured out Bologna midfielder Andrea Poli to press Florenzi.

With Bologna's other central midfielder keeping tabs on Jordan Veretout and Bologna's defenders unwilling to step out as they didn't want to leave their post or man, Lorenzo Pellegrini cleverly dropped deep to be the free man.