MILAN (Reuters) – AS Roma hammered Palermo 5-0 for their fifth successive Serie A win yesterday, a triumph overshadowed by coach Luciano Spalletti’s decision to drop Francesco Totti and adorned by Edin Dzeko’s unreal miss of the season in front of goal.
Dzeko recovered from his almost comical blunder to net twice while Mohamed Salah, with his own double, and Seydou Keita also scored to make it an unhappy return to the Palermo bench for coach Giuseppe Iachini, who was recalled last week after being sacked in November.
Lowly Palermo have had four different coaches in the Iachini’s absence and the most recent, Giovanni Bosi, was sacked after one match.
Third-placed Fiorentina kept up the pressure on pacesetters Juventus and Napoli with a 3-2 win at Atalanta where all the goals came in a breathless last 25 minutes.
Ali Adnan became the first Iraqi player to score a Serie A goal when he hit the target for Udinese at Genoa, although the hosts turned the game around to win 2-1, helped by a late penalty save from Mattia Perin.
