Doumbia helps Roma go second with win over Genoa

Roma moved ahead of local rivals Lazio into second place in Serie A and the final automatic Champions League spot on Sunday after a 2-0 win over in-form Genoa.

Seydou Doumbia's second goal in Italy and a wonderful Alessandro Florenzì solo strike in stoppage time gave Roma the three points.

"It was a clean match played with a great team spirit. Sure, the second goal came a bit late for the hearts of Roma fans, but the important thing was to win," said Roma coach Rudi Garcia.

"I always knew that Florenzi was that good. I saw him with the under 21s before I arrived here, and you could see that he was a player that could do it all."

Lazio, meanwhile, could only manage a 1-1 draw at Atalanta.

Roma's second straight win moves them up to 64 points, one ahead of Lazio, who were outplayed for large periods by Atalanta.

Despite going behind in the 59th minute to a Giuseppe Biava header, Lazio saved a point with 13 minutes to go through a spectacular Marco Parolo bicycle kick.

"We played with great character, because even if this wasn't our best performance technically-speaking it was a brilliant point," said Lazio manager Stefano Pioli.

Former Lazio defender Biava's opener came after nearly an hour of almost constant pressure from the home side, and Alejandro Gomez was unlucky not to score seconds before when his powerful attempt hammered back off the post and Federico Marchetti's hand before going out for a corner.

Lazio woke up after going a goal down and they drew level in style in the 77th minute.

Parolo met Danilo Cataldi's corner with a sideways scissor kick strike that flew past Marco Sportiello in the Atalanta goal and gained Lazio what could be a hugely important point in the race for the Champions league.

As it stands Stefano Pioli's side are seven points ahead of fourth-placed Napoli, who host AC Milan in Sunday's late game.

Even a win for Rafael Benitez's side keeps them four behind with four games to play, which include the Rome derby on the penultimate weekend and a potential crunch clash between the pair in Naples on the final day of the season.
"We have more games to play before the derby, the game next week against Inter is very difficult, but we have to win," added Pioli.

The point wasn't quite enough to guarantee safety for Atalanta, who stay fourth from bottom and seven points clear of Cagliari, who take on already relegated Parma on Monday, and Cesena, who were beat 3-1 by Fiorentina.

Genoa drop down to seventh after two goals in four first half minutes from Josip Ilicic and another from Alberto Gilardino just after the hour mark saw Fiorentina squeeze past them and Sampdoria into fifth place.

Vincenzo Montella's side are on 52 points, one ahead of sixth-placed Sampdoria, who lost 1-0 to newly-crowned champions Juventus on Saturday.

Inter Milan were jeered off the San Siro pitch after a goalless draw with Chievo that leaves them in eighth on 49 points, two behind sixth-placed Sampdoria.

"Unfortunately we had problems finding the goal. When a team defends and you can't find the goal it becomes hard," said a frustrated Inter coach Roberto Mancini.

"We are disappointed not to have won, but we had 24 shots. The only thing missing was accuracy."

Antonio Di Natale's 206th Serie A goal saw the striker overtake Roberto Baggio in the all time scoring charts and was enough for Udinese to win 1-0 at Verona, who had both Jacopo Sala and Rafael Marquez sent off.

Juventus won the title for the 31st time on Saturday after Arturo Vidal's first half strike saw Massimiliano Allegri's side defeat Sampdoria.

It was Juventus' fourth league title in a row.
Source: AFP