MILAN: Shell-shocked Roma's title hopes were kept in check by a chastening 2-0 home defeat to Atalanta on Sunday that has piled further pressure on the club's French coach Rudi Garcia.
Roma were firmly in the title hunt, comfortably in fourth place and three points behind leaders Inter Milan, going into their first league game since a humiliating 6-1 defeat by Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday.
But the Serie A hopefuls, still missing forwards Gervinho and Mohamed Salah, looked uninterested on their way to a third defeat of the campaign that kept them in fourth but now in danger of seeing their gap on leaders Inter grow to six points.
Garcia came in for plenty of criticism in the wake of his side's Nou Camp calamity, but he rejected suggestions the impact of the defeat had left his side shell-shocked.
"No, I don't think so. We'll prove that by getting the results we need in the future," he told Mediaset.
But after seeing Roma fail to respond to Alejandro Gomez's 40th strike and German Denis's spot-kick on 82 minute, Garcia said he won't look for excuses after a display for which he said the whole team felt "responsible".
"There's not much to say, we didn't have a winning attitude and we made a lot of mistakes. Now, we have to keep quiet and get to work.
"It's been a tough week, I know that. But the squad can show its mettle by putting this behind us. We're all disasppointed, but we're all responsible."
The Stadio Olimpico was stunned into silence five minutes before the interval when French left-back Lucas Digne gave possession away cheaply to Gomez, whose drive from 25 yards out beat Morgan De Sanctis at the 'keeper's far top corner.
Miralem Pjanic's glancing header eight minutes after the restart was cleared off the line by Luca Cigarini.
But De Sanctis had to be at his best on the hour to stop Maxi Moralez on a one-on-one after the Argentinian had been sent through by Radja Nainggolan's mistimed header.
Garcia replaced Iago Falque with reserve team player Umar Sadiq two minutes later, while right-back Alessandro Florenzi made way for Maicon on 70 minutes.
But Roma's woes deepened after the big Brazilian, 10 minutes after his arrival, saw red after a mistimed challenge on Gomez inside the area and Denis stepped up to beat De Sanctis from the spot on 82 minutes.
Even after Guglielmo Stendardo and Alberto Grassi saw red in the dying minutes for second bookable offences respectively to leave the visitors with nine men, it did little to dampen Atalanta's post-match celebrations.
Atalanta coach Edoardo Reja told Rai: "We came here to win and did very well, although the key was being clinical when it came to our chances."
Roma remain three points behind Inter but could be six adrift if the Nerazzurri upset the form book to beat in-form Napoli, in second two points adrift, on Monday.
Inter coach Roberto Mancini, however, admitted: "It's our first big test against a direct rival away from the San Siro, so we have to give it everything."
On Monday. Fiorentina, also just two points off the pace, are away to Sassuolo looking to maintain their title push.
Roma's loss means AC Milan remain fifth, only four points further back, after their 4-1 drubbing of Sampdoria on Saturday.
Crisis-hit Lazio, meanwhile, saw two second-half goals by Miroslav Klose chalked off on their way to a fourth defeat in five consecutive matches away to Empoli.
Stefano Pioli's men never recovered from a fifth-minute opener by Lorenzo Tonelli despite a stirring second-half performance that had Empoli's defence on the ropes.
Lazio remain in 10th spot at 11 points behind Inter, with Empoli moving five points clear of the drop zone up to 12th.
Champions Juventus are seventh, nine points behind Inter, ahead of their trip to Palermo in Sunday's late fixture.
Comments
Comments are closed.