The Roma coach Luciano Spalletti says his team need to start winning games away from home, beginning with the match at Siena today, if they are to put a definite end to talk of a crisis at the club. Poor results away from the Stadio Olimpico have hindered last season's runners-up, who lie 10th in the standings, five points behind league leaders and city rivals Lazio.
But team morale will be high after Wednesday night's come-back at Bordeaux in the Champions League, a game in which their European ambitions looked to be slipping away after they went one down to the French side. A goal from Mirko Vucinic and a brace from Julio Baptista in the second half turned what looked like a defeat into a spectacular 3-1 triumph. Spalletti will be hoping for more of the same when his team travel to Tuscany, looking to bounce back from their domestic slips at Palermo and Genoa.
"We need to continue to work," he said. "It's early days yet and there are still a lot of games left to play but we must start winning on the road." Rivals Siena are keen to remind Roma of what happened last season, when they stunned the Giallorossi with a 3-0 triumph at the Artemio Franchi Stadium. "We hope to play the perfect game just as we did last campaign," said Siena striker Massimo Maccarone. "You don't need any further motivation when you play against teams like Roma and we hope they will have a bad day."
AC Milan travel to rock-bottom Cagliari on a high after summer signings Ronaldinho and Andriy Shevchenko finally hit form in front of goal this week.Both players ended their goalscoring drought in the space of a few days after Ronaldinho struck the winner against Inter last weekend and Shevchenko scored against FC Zurich in the Uefa Cup on Thursday. "I am extremely happy," said Shevchenko."Everyone knew how important this goal was for me. After two years away I really wanted to score."
* With agencies
