AS Roma stalwart Francesco Totti came off the bench with four minutes left and scored twice to give his Champions League-chasing side a dramatic 3-2 win over Torino in Serie A on Wednesday.
The 39-year-old’s performance, the latest twist in a career spanning an extraordinary 24 seasons at Roma, overshadowed leaders Juventus who moved closed to their seemingly inevitable fifth successive title with a 3-0 win over 10-man Lazio.
Totti, whose lack of playing time since January has reportedly caused friction with coach Luciano Spalletti, needed just 22 seconds to equalise with his first touch, volleying in at the far post after Miralem Pjanic’s cross was touched on.
The irrepressible playmaker jumped over two advertising hoardings, barely managing to clear them, as he went to celebrate the goal with the Curva Sud, who had jeered Spalletti and applauded Totti at the start of the game.
Totti was back for more three minutes later, stepping up to convert a penalty after Nikola Maksimovi was harshly ruled to have handled to keep Roma firmly in third place, the Champions League playoff spot.
Totti had begun the match on the bench and watched helplessly as Andrea Belotti put Torino in front from a penalty, Konstantinos Manolas headed Roma level and Josef Martinez put the visitors back in front.
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Juventus had no such problems as they notched their 23rd win in their last 24 league games to stay nine points clear of Napoli, who had briefly reduced the deficit with a 6-0 demolition of Bologna on Tuesday.
Mario Mandzukic gave Juventus a halftime lead and the game was effectively over after Lazio had Gil Patric sent off for a second bookable offence three minutes after the break.
Paulo Dybala converted a penalty after Leonardo Bonucci went tumbling in the area, a decision which provoked angry Lazio protests, and the Argentine finished off a typically incisive break just after the hour to complete the win.
Juventus have 82 points from 34 games, with Napoli on 73 and Roma on 68.
Roberto Mancini’s Inter saw their Champions League hopes all but extinguished in a 1-0 defeat at Genoa where Sebastian De Maio scored the winner with 13 minutes left.
Bottom three Frosinone, Palermo and Verona all moved closer to Serie B after a dramatic evening at the basement end of the table.
Daniel Ciofani gave Frosinone a fifth minute lead at Chievo but they then had Arlind Ajeti and Raman Chibsah sent off as they crashed to a 5-1 defeat.
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Palermo also got off to a flying start when Franco Vazquez converted a second-minute penalty at home to Atalanta.
However, Marco Boriello and Gabriel Paletta replied for the visitors and the Sicilians, where Davide Ballardini is in his second stint of the season as coach, needed a late equaliser from Aljaz Struna for a point.
Verona were left seven points adrift at the bottom and almost certain to go down after they were beaten 1-0 at Empoli by a second-half goal from Massimo Maccarone.
