MILAN (AP) — Paulo Dybala and Stephan El Shaarawy scored late as Roma beat lowly Udinese 3-1 in Serie A on Sunday and closed the gap on the top four.
Florian Thauvin had leveled for Udinese to cancel out Gianluca Mancini’s first-half opener.
The result lifted Roma up to fifth, three points behind fourth-place Napoli and 10 below league leader Inter Milan ahead of the Nerazzurri’s match at second-place Juventus later Sunday.
It was Udinese’s first defeat in nearly two months and left it a point above the relegation zone.
Roma had recovered from a poor start to the season and won four of its previous six league matches, losing at Inter and drawing against Lazio in the capital derby.
Jose Mourinho’s side took the lead in the 20th minute when Dybala floated in a free kick and Mancini beat his marker to head the ball in across the face of goal.
Udinese had been pushing at the start of the second half and it equalized in the 57th when Martín Payero whipped in a cross from the left for Thauvin to head in at the back post.
Roma restored its advantage nine minutes from time with a great team move that it finished off when Romelu Lukaku backheeled the ball to Dybala, who drilled it into the bottom left corner.
Lukaku also had a hand in Roma’s third, in the final minute, as he controlled a long ball before laying it off to Edoardo Bove, who passed it on first time for El Shaarawy to sweep into the far bottom corner.
SEVEN-GOAL THRILLER
Domenico Berardi scored twice, including a stoppage-time winner, to help Sassuolo to a 4-3 victory at Empoli and end a six-match winless run for his team.
Sassuolo moved up to 13th, five points above the relegation zone and 18th-place Empoli, which had surprisingly won at Napoli in the previous round.
Substitute Ilario Monterisi also scored in stoppage time to send Frosinone to a 2-1 win over Genoa.
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