Roma’s Bryan Cristante flicked the ball around the corner in the direction of Artem Dovbyk to give chase.

The Ukrainian found himself on the edge of the Lecce penalty area with only Eldor Shomurodov for company. 

It was a two-vs-two battle between Dovbyk, Shomurodov and Lecce’s Federico Baschirotto and Kialonda Gaspar.

Baschirotto was bundled off the ball while Shomurodov peeled away into space, leaving just Gaspar for his team-mate to contend with. The forward twisted and turned, shifting from one foot to the next, before he pulled back onto his favoured left-foot and hit a low effort that arrowed past Lecce keeper Wladimiro Falcone.

The vital goal, scored with just 10 minutes remianing, had secured all three points and kept Roma in the hunt — miraculously — for a Champions League spot.

Arguably his best goal since arriving in Italy, it highlighted all of the 27-year-old’s best qualities: strength, control and precision. 

“We always need to ask more of him in order to stimulate him, because he can do better,” said Roma boss Claudio Ranieri after the game. “He’s good in deep positions but we don’t always serve him.

“Yet I’ve asked the lads to help him. He’s a sensitive boy and the goals help.”

It hasn’t been the easiest of first seasons for Dovbyk. The club’s biggest summer signing at €32m, he struggled in the early months in Italy. 

This was only natural, considering Roma’s shocking start to the campaign and the dismissal of Daniele De Rossi. Dovbyk is a throwback striker, not overly concerned about building up the play or hovering out to the left-wing and drifting inwards, his game is all about goals, his area of expertise solely within the confines of the penalty box.

The combination of Roma’s poor start and Paulo Dybala, the team’s creator-in-chief, not firing on all cylinders meant many were wondering what the Giallorossi had spent their money on. 

He looked the proverbial fish out of water in the opening stages. Five goals in 18 league games was hardly the kind of return Roma expected.

Yet there was more going on than meets the eye. Members of Dovbyk’s family are still in the Ukraine and, with the war against Russia ongoing, Ranieri has remarked this has naturally played on the striker’s mind.

“But we must always think that this boy gets up every morning thinking about his loved ones, with the doubt of whether they are alive or not,” said the coach.

“We can’t even imagine what goes through his head.”

It’s maybe in this context that explains the striker’s reluctance to truly celebrate goals with abandoned glee. There’s always an air of restraint in his celebrations, Dovbyk never goes full Pippo Inzaghi, a striker who would celebrate the fourth goal in a 5-0 win like it was the winner in a World Cup final.

The player puts his somewhat muted celebrations down to being a bit of a perfectionist: “I don’t celebrate because I know I can and must do better, I know what I can give,” he said after scoring in the win against Genoa back in January. “I’m never completely satisfied with my performances.”

Roma fans still haven’t fully taken to Dovbyk either. There’s an argument that for a centre forward, he lacks the ‘nastiness’ to lead the line alone (something also levelled at former Roma star Edin Dzeko for years).

Yet there’s no debating his growing importance to the Giallorossi cause over the course of the season. His 11 goals in Serie A have earned Roma 15 points, almost a third of their overall tally.

Last season’s Pichichi winner was decisive in wins against Udinese, Como and Cagliari — in addition to Lecce — and goals against Genoa, Monza and Bologna earned a point. 

Six goals in his last nine games is proof Dovbyk is getting to grips with the Italian game, and the reintroduction of Shomurodov has been good for competition. 

A player on the fringes at Roma under De Rossi and Juric, Shomurodov is a favourite of Ranieri, with the pair working together at Cagliari last season.

The Uzbek striker had played a mere 80 minutes of football before Ranieri walked back in the door at Roma, but since then has featured more regularly, and his reintegration has helped Dovbyk.

“They were always two men on him [Dovbyk],” said Ranieri after the win in Puglia. “By giving him help [in Shomurodov], we made him feel he was getting support.”

Playing both strikers together from the start could be a potential solution to get the best out of the Ukranian in the remaining weeks of the season. With Dybala now out for the remainder through injury, the No 11 needs all the support he can get.

Roma’s form under ‘Sir Claudio’, as he’s known in the Italian media, has been remarkable: seven straight victories, and unbeaten in the league since the 2-0 defeat to Como in mid-December, means it’s unlikely a formation change is forthcoming.

Ranieri has catapulted Roma back into conversation for the final Champions League spot, something that was unthinkable at the turn of the year. Only four points separate Roma in sixth to Bologna in fourth and, with eight games remaining, everything is to play for.

Should Roma complete the turnaround and qualify for a competition they last played in six years ago, Dovbyk’s goals will have played a vital part in the success.