Abraham penalty in 9th minute of injury time gives Roma win

MILAN (AP) - Tammy Abraham scored a penalty deep into stoppage time to end Roma's winless run as the capital side scraped a 1-0 victory at 10-man Spezia in Serie A on Sunday.

Abraham's penalty came in the ninth minute of injury time after Roma had hit the woodwork four times and wasted a number of chances at Spezia, which had played most of the match with 10 men after defender Kelvin Amian was sent off at the end of the first half.

It was Roma's first win in five matches and lifted it up to sixth, six points behind fourth-place Juventus. Spezia is four points off the relegation zone.

All Serie A matches are starting five minutes late this weekend accompanied by a peace message following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Napoli can move level with league leader AC Milan with a win at Lazio later.

Roma coach José Mourinho was serving the first of a two-match suspension following his actions toward the referee during and after last week's 2-2 draw against Hellas Verona.

Spezia had lost its previous two matches to late goals and its hopes of getting something against Roma diminished on the stroke of halftime when Amian was sent off following a second yellow card.

Roma upped the pressure immediately after the break and Bryan Cristante's shot came off the base of the right post.

That was the second time Roma had hit the woodwork in the match after Spezia goalkeeper Ivan Provedel pulled off a fantastic save to tip Lorenzo Pellegrini's strike off the post.

And the woodwork again denied Roma in a frantic finale as Nicolò Zaniolo twice hit the crossbar in the same move and the ball was cleared off the line before Spezia managed to get it away in a goalmouth scramble.

However, the referee reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor and awarded a penalty after spotting that Giulio Maggiore had caught Zaniolo in the face with a high boot as the Roma midfielder was diving for a header for the first of his attempts that hit the bar.

Abraham kept his cool to drill the penalty into the bottom left corner.

GOAL DROUGHT ENDED

Giovanni Simeone broke his goal drought in style with a second-half hat trick to help Hellas Verona beat relegation-threatened Venezia 3-1.

They were Simeone's first goals since mid-December.

David Okereke headed Venezia back into the match nine minutes from time but Simeone completed his hat trick and sealed the result seven minutes later.

Venezia slipped into the drop zone, three points behind Cagliari after the Sardinian side won 2-1 at Torino.

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