It was one of those games were Paulo Dybala was in the zone.

With Roma 1-0 down against Porto in the Europa League play-off second leg, Dybala received the ball from Manu Kone in the Porto third, the Argentine turned and ran at the Portuguese defence before sliding a ball into the feet of Eldor Shomurodov.

The Uzbekistan striker, stationed on the periphery of the Porto box, instantly returned to sender with a simple pass into Dybala’s feet. The Argentine kept on running, ghosting between Porto players before facing goalkeeper Diogo Costa. Dybala dinked the ball over the 25-year-old into the corner of the net to level the tie.

Four minutes later he repeated the trick. This time down the right-hand side, Dybala jinked and jived past a pair of Porto players before passing to Kone. The Frenchman held on to the ball until the right moment before releasing it back to Dybala, who had darted into the penalty area.

Now back in possession of the ball but facing a wall of Porto defenders, the former Juventus forward etched out a small gap, shaped his body and bent the ball into the near corner, taking Costa by surprise. It was sumptuous from the 31-year-old, and a remainder of his enduring quality.

With Italian sides having a horrendous week in continental competition, Roma’s win against Porto was of huge relief, and huge importance, if Italy is to have any chance of securing five Champions League spots next season.

Yet they were up against it when the away side scored in the opening half an hour through Samu Aghehowa.

Given how this week had gone for Italian sides in Europe and the fact that Porto have always had Roma’s number in recent years, many would’ve expected the Giallorossi to lose – another exit seemingly on the cards.

Yet Dybala rose to the occasion, as he has so often done, and turned the game on its head. 

“Not only is he an extraordinary player, but he’s a leader,” blushed Roma boss Claudio Ranieri after the full-time whistle. “He doesn’t speak much, but when he does he makes himself heard.”

Ranieri continued with his gushing appraisal of Dybala: “He is the fuse that lights everything. He’s having fun and he’s physically well.”

The last part of Ranieri’s sentence is why the player finds himself at the Stadio Olimpico on Europa League nights, rather than pariticipating in Champions League evenings.

Since contracting Covid in the early days of the pandemic, Dybala’s injury record hasn’t made for particularly good reading. In his final two years at Juventus, he missed 45 games. Since joining Roma in the summer of 2022, he’s missed 38 games. 

Jose Mourinho once remarked that Dybala ‘wouldn’t be at Roma’ were it not for his physical issues, and he’s right.

Upon leaving Juve, no one was willing to pay Dybala the kind of money he was demanding due to his fragile body. There was never any doubt on his ability.

Few could, and still can’t, do what Dybala is capable of doing in Serie A. A magician in the truest sense, Dybala can conjure something out of nothing. Case in point being his second against Porto.

Dybala is a throwback to a bygone age. One of the last No 10s in circulation, a player around whom a team’s entire attack can be focused. 

Players like Dybala are still cherished and much missed, especially by a certain vintage of football fan. Yet the march of analytics and data has rendered players like La Joya obsolete. A relic of yesteryear.

In modern football technique has, in a way, become secondary to running and putting in the hard yards. Of course, the game has always had soldiers and artists, that was the beauty of it.

In decades past, soldiers like Antonio Conte and Angelo Di Livio would do the running for artists like Roberto Baggio. In 2025, the game is full of Di Livios and Contes, and not enough Baggios.

Of course this is due to tactical trends, of the Pep Guardiola-induced pursuit of footballing perfection, where the system is king and players are mere pawns on a chess board.

Dybala is reminiscent of the 20th century when players were, for the most part, king.

His two goals secured Roma’s passage into the round of 16, a meeting with Athletic Bilbao and a couple of extra million euros in UEFA prize money. 

His form has picked up since the arrival of Ranieri in November with ‘Sir Claudio’, as he’s known in the Italian media, stressing that if Dybala is fit, he plays.

Eight goals in all competitions may not sound like impressive figures, but when you consider Dybala had only scored two prior to Ranieri’s return in November, his upturn is a major positive for Roma.

If Roma are going to fight for the Europa League and continue to climb up the league, they’re going to need to keep the man who has lit their European fuse at his best.