Serie A title pretender Roma failed to take maximum points from Tuscan opposition for the fourth time this season, losing 3-0 away to Siena. On the other three occasions, the Giallorossi had managed to come away with a point. Unfortunately, says the Guardian’s Richard Aikman, nine dropped points against the likes of Empoli, Fiorentina, Livorno and Siena simply isn’t good enough — not when Serie A leader Inter Milan has dropped just 10 points all season.
“Seen from the stands, the Stadio Artemio Franchi took on the appearance of a fairytale, where nothing seems as it is,” wrote Mattia Chiusano of La Repubblica. “We should get Siena to take on Real Madrid [in the Champions League] not Roma. This was a one-sided match, where the roles were strangely reversed, where the players were in disguise.”
Indeed, Roma’s loss on Sunday was easily the team’s worst defeat of the season, leaving it eight points behind Inter — which managed to scrape by Empoli, 1-0, with 10 men. But therein lies the difference between the two clubs: the Serie champs eke out wins when they’re playing poorly, while Roma is lucky to settle for a draw. Aikman points out that prior to the Siena loss, it had taken the Giallorossi a run of six wins and a draw to steal two points from Inter’s lead. On Sunday, all that hard work blew up in their faces. Here we are in February and once again the Serie A title race looks all but over.