Koulierakis Starts as Roma Keep a Clean Sheet in 2-0 Win Over Genoa

By Taki Panos

Three days after a night he would rather forget, Konstantinos Koulierakis got a much better one. The Greece international started in Roma's back three on Saturday as the Giallorossi beat Daniele De Rossi's Genoa 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico in round seven of Serie A, as Football Italia reported. It was his first start for the club, SDNA noted. He made way for Mario Hermoso just after the hour, with Roma already a goal up, and the clean sheet held all the way to the final whistle.

For readers who do not follow Italian football closely, Roma signed the center-back from Wolfsburg on August 1 in a permanent deal worth close to 17 million euros including bonuses, ANSA reported at the time. He came through PAOK and made his senior Greece debut at 18, according to the club's own announcement, before moving to Germany in 2024 and playing 66 games for Wolfsburg, the German club said. Minutes in Rome have been scarce since. His debut was a substitute appearance in the 68th minute of the opening day win over Fiorentina, per SDNA.

By the time of the Champions League opener at Fenerbahçe in September, he still had only that one appearance, Sport FM noted. Then came a heavy knock on international duty that kept him out of the trip to Como, coach Gian Piero Gasperini explained at a press conference quoted by Il Romanista. He was back in training on October 13, TuttoMercatoWeb reported, just in time for Real Madrid. Fair to say the first month and a half in Italy has been a lesson in patience.

That Real Madrid game was the rough part. Roma led 3-1 at the Olimpico on Wednesday and lost 4-3 after conceding three late goals from corners, per Tuttosport. Koulierakis came on for Hermoso in the 81st minute, and Goal Italia singled him and Leonardo Balerdi out for losing their markers on two of those corners, giving the Greek a 5 out of 10. That is a harsh way to spend your first Champions League night at home. The only cure is the next game.

Gasperini made seven changes for Genoa, some of them forced. Paulo Dybala and Manu Koné were hurt against Real, Mile Svilar and Bryan Cristante were already injured, and top scorer Donyell Malen was suspended after his red card at Como, Football Italia wrote. That opened the door. Koulierakis lined up with Balerdi and Evan Ndicka in a three-man defense in front of goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini, who was facing his former club, TuttoMercatoWeb confirmed. It was a young, patched-up side, and Genoa came to make life awkward.

They nearly did. Former Roma winger Stephan El Shaarawy forced Gollini into a save with his legs after nine minutes and later hit the crossbar from the edge of the box, while Balerdi headed a Niccolò Pisilli corner onto the bar at the other end, Football Italia reported. SDNA had both teams hitting the woodwork within three minutes of each other around the half-hour mark. It finished 0-0 at the break, and nobody in the stadium looked very relaxed.

The game turned on two moments of quality. Five minutes after the restart, a corner dropped into a crowd at the near post and Santiago Castro turned and dinked the ball into the far top corner for his first Roma goal, per Sport24. In the 68th minute, Matías Soulé ran from his own half, played a one-two with Lorenzo Pellegrini, and his deflected shot fell to 19-year-old Emanuele Lulli for his first Serie A goal. Castro later said he had Ezequiel Lavezzi's famous dinked goal against Milan in mind, Football Italia reported.

So how did Koulierakis do? The Italian ratings were steady rather than glowing. Sky Sport Italia, Sport Mediaset and RomaToday all gave him a 6, with Sport Mediaset writing that he "plays clean, makes few mistakes and keeps things simple" (translated from Italian). TuttoMercatoWeb also gave him a 6, saying he handled Junior Messias and Mikael Ellertsson without much trouble but did not fully convince Gasperini. RomaToday called him aggressive, at times too aggressive. A pass mark, then, and after Wednesday, a pass mark matters.

Gasperini was pleased with the response. "We did better after the break, and had a very young squad out there, but I have to say they were excellent. We won a match that counts for a great deal," he told Sky Sport Italia, via Football Italia. It was the 300th Serie A win of his career, and the outlet added that it is Roma's best start to a Serie A season in 12 years. The result keeps Roma two points behind leaders Inter, according to SDNA.

It was not a normal night for the visitors either. De Rossi is a Roma legend, and he said his Genoa side played a balanced game for 50 minutes "until that masterpiece from Castro," Football Italia reported. Genoa had taken one point from their first five league games before beating Fiorentina 2-1 last weekend, so there was no shame in the way they competed. Still, the scoreboard does not hand out points for effort, and Roma were the better side after the break.

My take: nobody will make a highlight reel out of Koulierakis' evening, and that is exactly the point. After being caught up in the corner collapse against Real Madrid, the best thing he could do was play 60 tidy minutes without drama, and he did. He still has Hermoso, Ndicka, Balerdi and Gianluca Mancini to compete with, so one start does not change the pecking order. But Greek fans who followed Tsimikas at Liverpool and Karetsas at Dortmund this week will be glad to see another Greek player settling in at a big European club. Quiet nights build trust.

Next up is a much bigger test. Roma visit Napoli on Saturday, October 24, at 6:00 PM Italian time (7:00 PM in Greece), per the club's fixture list. Whether Koulierakis keeps his place may depend on who returns from injury, but he has given Gasperini something to think about. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for more on Greek players abroad. One clean sheet down.

Sources: Football Italia, SDNA, Sport24, ANSA, AS Roma, VfL Wolfsburg, Sport FM, Goal Italia, Tuttosport, Il Romanista, TuttoMercatoWeb, Sky Sport Italia, Sport Mediaset, RomaToday.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).