Totti’s 250th Serie A goal fails to save Roma
MILAN: Francesco Totti, two days short of his 40th birthday, scored his 250th Serie A goal for Roma yesterday but it was not enough as they continued their inconsistent start to the season with a 3-1 defeat at Torino.
Giovanni Simeone, son of Atletico Madrid coach and former Argentina captain Diego, scored his first Serie A goal to help nine-man Genoa draw 1-1 with Pescara and Inter Milan were held 1-1 at home by Bologna.
Inter moved into third with 11 points from six games, four behind leaders Juventus. They are followed by Roma, Lazio, Chievo and Bologna, all on 10 points.
Roma were undone by two goals from Iago Falque, a player they loaned to their opponents at the start of the season, as they lost away to Torino for the first time since 1990.
Andrea Belotti headed Torino in front in the eighth minute and they struck again when Falque converted a penalty in the 53rd after Belotti was tripped by Bruno Peres.
In between, Torino goalkeeper Joe Hart twice denied his former Manchester City teammate Edin Dzeko an equaliser for Roma.
Roma were themselves awarded a penalty in the 55th minute and halftime substitute Totti, playing his 25th season at his only professional club, sent Hart the wrong way to score his second goal of the campaign. Falque restored Torino’s two-goal lead 10 minutes later with a shot which took a wicked deflection off Federico Fazio.
Totti, Serie A’s second alltime leading scorer, is 24 goals short of Silvio Piola’s record of 274, set in 1954.
“Totti is the best player in Italy in the last 25 years. It gives me great pleasure to see him still playing,” said Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.
Roma coach Luciano Spalletti was angry with his team’s inconsistency.
“For a long time this team has shown too many highs and lows, both under myself and other coaches,” he said.
“There’s always this presumption that things will happen by themselves purely because of the prestige of the club, the quality in the squad and the importance of the shirt.”
Simeone, signed from River Plate in the close season, got off the mark two minutes after halftime when he controlled Santiago Gentiletti’s pass and drilled the ball home with his left foot for a well-taken finish.
But Genoa fell apart in the last 20 minutes as Edenilson and Goran Pandev were both sent off before Rey Manaj levelled for promoted Pescara with four minutes left.
Mattia Destro stunned the San Siro when he finished off a counter-attack to give Bologna a 14th-minute lead against Inter before Ivan Perisic volleyed the equaliser.
Inter should have won the game with the last move of the match, but Andrea Ranocchia somehow sent a free header wide from only six metres.
Keita Balde Diao and Senad Lulic gave Lazio a 2-0 win over Empoli and a first-half strike from Gregoire Defrel gave Sassuolo a 1-0 win over Udinese. – Reuters