Totti’s farewell ends in celebration as Roma clinch second spot

ROME: Diego Perotti struck at the death as AS Roma handed club icon Francesco Totti a farewell to remember with a thrilling 3-2 win at home to Genoa in a packed Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.

One-club man Totti, 40, playing his final game with the capital side after a storied 25-year career that garnered only one league title, was handed a final-day gift when he was called upon to replace Egyptian Mohamed Salah on 54 minutes.

Totti failed to score on what was his 619th and final Serie A appearance of 785 in total.

But by the end of a valuable win that secured Roma’s place in next season’s Champions League, the evergreen playmaker experienced a send-off that saw almost the entire stadium shed tears.

One teary-eyed fan broke the barriers to run and hug his hero as they waved off arguably the most symbolic player in Italy over the past 20 years.

“The moment has arrived. I’ve cried the whole day. This was my only jersey,” said Totti.

“I took this decision with my wife and my family. I’d like to stay for another 25 years. Thank you Roma, thanks to my family, my Mum, Dad and brother.

“I’d love to write a poem, a song, but all I can do is try to use my feet to express myself.”

Totti played a pivotal role in Roma ending an 18-year wait for the scudetto in 2001, and — barring any last-minute decision to continue his playing career elsewhere — is now set to start working alongside Roma’s sporting director Monchi.

He added: “Damn it. I get goosebumps when I think about June 17, 2001. From tomorrow, I’ll be a grown up.”

Yet for Totti, and the thousands of fans who showed up sporting special T-shirts and banners to pay tribute to ‘Il Re di Roma’ (The King of Rome), it was a nervy final game of the season.

Genoa travelled to the capital intent on ruining Totti’s farewell party and stunned the stadium into silence when 16-year-old Pietro Pellegri became the youngest player ever to score in Serie A when he hit their opener after just three minutes, sprinting clear of their defence and firing past Wojciech Szczesny.

Edin Dzeko levelled seven minutes later with his 29th goal of the season, finishing as Serie A top scorer, and Roma missed a succession of chances before halftime.

The fact that there was so much at stake for Roma added some real drama to an already highly-charged, emotional occasion and coach Luciano Spalletti, who has restricted Totti’s playing time this season, duly brought on the talisman in the second half.

Totti created two good chances before Dzeko got behind the Genoa defence and pulled back the ball for Roma’s future captain Daniele De Rossi to slam home in the 74th minute.

But Genoa had not read the script and five minutes later Diego Laxalt floated over a cross which Szczesny missed and Darko Lazovic headed the equaliser at the far post.

Lazovic hit the post on another Genoa counter but, just as it seemed that Genoa were about to wreck the party, substitute Perotti popped up to fire in his late winner when he got on the end of Dzeko’s knock-down to beat Eugenio Lamanna from close range.

CROTONE’S GREAT ESCAPE

Roma’s 28th win of the campaign left Spalletti’s men in second place on 87 points, one ahead of Napoli — whose 4-2 win at Sampdoria on the final day of the season was in vain — and four behind champions Juventus, who sealed a record sixth consecutive Serie A title last week.

“When you coach a squad like Roma you’ve got to always have victory as the goal and sometimes second place isn’t acceptable for some people. But this second place is a huge accomplishment,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said.

“We had to obtain this result and today, particularly, the squad really deserves it for how the match developed.”

De Rossi paid tribute to his close friend Totti and his status as a symbol of Rome, as well as Roma, over the years.

“There are people who are not normal. There are careers that are not normal. I saw a banner that said the real battle against modern football is to wear the same jersey for 25 years,” said De Rossi, who himself has been at the club since 2001-02.

Napoli’s third place sends them into the Champions League playoffs in August — where Italian teams have lost in six of the previous eight seasons.

Lorenzo Insigne provided the highlight of Napoli’s win when he broke down the left and sent a dipping shot over Christian Puggioni from a seemingly impossible angle just before halftime to put them 2-0 up after Dries Mertens had opened the scoring.

Marek Hamsik and Jose Callejon were on target in the second half for Napoli, the league’s highest scorers with 94 goals, while Fabio Quagliarella and Ricardo Alvarez replied for Samp.

Meanwhile, Crotone avoided relegation in remarkable fashion thanks to a 3-1 win at home to Lazio while Empoli became the last club sent down to Serie B following a 2-1 loss at Palermo.

Andrea Nalini scored twice either side of a Diego Falcinelli goal for Crotone against a Lazio side who had Bastos sent off in the first half.

Crotone, the small side from the heel of the Italian peninsula completing their first season in the top division in their 107-year history, seemed doomed at the start of April, but took 20 points from their last nine games to stay up.

Ilija Nestorovski and Bruno Henrique scored late in the second half for Palermo, who were already relegated while Rade Krunic pulled one back for Empoli three minutes from the end.

Crotone finished 17th, two points above Empoli, who entered the day one point ahead. Bottom side Pescara, who had also already been relegated, drew 2-2 at Fiorentina.

Lazio’s loss let Atalanta finish a club-record fourth, one spot ahead of the Roman club.

Sixth-placed AC Milan lost 2-1 at Cagliari after conceding a stoppage-time goal, seventh-placed Inter Milan finished an otherwise unhappy season in style, beating Udinese 5-2, while Gregoire Defrel scored a hat-trick for Sassuolo but still ended up on the losing side in a 5-3 defeat at Torino.