AS Roma and Juve reeling as minnows fly high

AS Roma plunged further into crisis after suffering a 1-0 defeat at Siena on Sunday and having both their centre-backs dismissed.

Luciano Spalletti’s team had already had a poor start to the season before this, their third defeat in as many away games that leaves them in the bottom half and with just seven points from six games.

They are already six points off city-rivals Lazio and champions Inter Milan at the top.

Liechtenstein forward Mario Frick scored the winner in first half stoppage time as he reached Massimo Maccarone’s cross just ahead of France defender Philippe Mexes.

Any hopes Roma had of salvaging something from the game disappeared after the break as first Mexes and then Cristian Panucci received their marching orders.

One of Roma’s main problems this season has been the number of injuries they’ve had, depriving them of top players such as Mexes, Juan and Francesco Totti and now the subsequent suspensions Mexes and Panucci will serve could hit them even harder than the loss of three points in Siena.

Spalletti said it was those missing players that were making the difference.

“Rather than changing our system I think most of all we need to get back some players who are particularly important for us,” he insisted.

Juventus are not going much better as they lost 2-1 at home to Palermo while finishing with 10 men.

Fabrizio Miccoli gave the Sicilians the lead in the first half, reacting quickest to prod the ball home after Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon spilled a cross from Edison Cavani.

Italy veteran Alessandro Del Piero restored parity with a sumptuous free-kick but on the stroke of half-time Mali midfielder Momo Sissoko was shown a second yellow card.

Georgian forward Levan Mchedlidze then hit the winner nine minutes from time with his first ever goal in Serie A, sending Palermo up to fourth. Juve boss Claudio Ranieri complained that his side had been unlucky.

“Palermo had only one chance and they punished us,” he said about the first half. “Things are tough at the moment but we have the want and desire to react.

“It’s not easy to play with 10 men, but with 10 against 11 we had more of the game than Palermo. They did well on the counter attack, though.”

It was a crazy weekend in Italy with three teams finishing with nine men and nine players being sent off in the seven matches — only Udinese-Torino ended with a full set of 22 players on the pitch.

Udinese are joint top with Lazio, who were held 1-1 at home by Lecce on Saturday, and Inter, 2-1 winners over Bologna on Saturday, after the northerners won 2-0.

Italy forward Fabio Quagliarella scored both goals for Udinese, the first a minute before the break and the second 13 minutes from time.

Udinese’s lofty position is not totally unexpected with likes of Antonio Di Natale and Antonio Floro Flores also on their books.

Atalanta are up to fifth after a 4-2 win over nine-man Sampdoria while Genoa held on to beat Napoli 3-2, inflicting the first defeat of the season on Diego Maradona’s old team, despite also losing two players to red cards.

Alberto Gilardino continued his rich goal-scoring form since his move from AC Milan as he bagged the second in Fiorentina’s 2-0 win at newly-promoted Chievo.

Milan travel to rock-bottom and pointless Cagliari in the day’s late game.