Roma captain Francesco Totti (centre) tries to force his way past Eliaquim Mangala, of Man. City.

Torino’s 5-1 annihilation of FC Copenhagen on Thursday not only enabled Giampiero Ventura’s side to put an end to a seven-match winless run but also marked an almost perfect week for Serie A clubs in Europe.

The Maroons became the fourth Italian team in the Europa League to reach the last 32.

Earlier in the week, Juventus had advanced to the first knock-out round of the Champions League but the only let-down came from Roma who were ‘relegated’ to UEFA’s second-tier competition after finishing in third place in Group E.

Although Italian clubs are still considered below par when compared with their counterparts from the English Premier League, Spanish Primera Liga and the Bundesliga, they are slowly reversing the negative trend in Euro club competitions.

Overall, six Italian clubs will be in the fray when the competitions resume in February. This is the best showing for Italy’s top flight since 2008/09.

One point was all Juve needed from their home game against Spanish champions Atletico Madrid to progress from the group phase... and that is precisely what the Bianconeri obtained after a goalless draw.

At this same stage last year, Juventus were beaten 1-0 by Galatasaray, a defeat which had condemned Antonio Conte’s men to the Europa League.

As the current season peters out, Massimiliano Allegri is proving to be more and more of a pragmatic coach, perhaps even more than his illustrious predecessor.

With the former Milan and Cagliari coach in charge, Juventus never relinquished their leading status in the Serie A and at the same time became a more balanced and clinical outfit on the continent.

Roma coach Rudi Garcia still prefers style over substance. In reality, this is one of the main differences between Juventus and Roma this season.

Take Roma’s home upset against Manchester City last week, for instance.

The Romans only required a goalless draw to reach the knock-out stages of the UEFA Champions League.

City, the English champions, were without their best three players in Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Yaya Toure.

Yet, instead of playing a containing game to reach their objective, Roma went all out in search of a win.

Roma should now aim to lift their international profile by reaching the Europa League final in Warsaw next May

Eventually, Garcia’s men were undone by two second-half City goals, scored by Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta, highlighting the fact that Roma still have a lot of catch-up to do to bridge the gap with other elite European teams in terms of handling key matches of this kind.

In my opinion, Roma had enough quality to eliminate Manchester City and they were also in pole position to do this. However, they still failed.

For the capital club, it was another case of being so close but yet so far.

The Giallorossi’s drawbacks were their failure to chalk up points from home fixtures against both Bayern Munich and Manchester City, and their inability to close the game against CSKA Moscow in Russia, last month, where they conceded an injury-time equaliser.

If Roma are to embark on a good run in both Serie A and the Europa League, they need to opt for more patience and direct play.

In football, results are all that count as they go down in the annals of the game.

There were a number of games which Juventus did not deserve to win this season.

Nonetheless, they still managed to collect all points at stake.

In contrast, there were games which Roma dominated and should have won hands down, but still failed to collect any points.

Reverse of trend

There are no two ways about it – Roma need to reverse this trend before it is too late even though last weekend they reduced the gap with Juventus in the Serie A to a single point following a 1-0 win at a difficult ground in Genoa.

In the Serie A, Roma will have to be alert and profit from any further Juventus slip-ups.

Indeed, they cannot drop points like they did in their own backyard against unfancied Sassuolo earlier this month.

Had they won that match Roma would be leading the Serie A standings this week.

Also, Roma should now aim to lift their international profile by reaching the Europa League final in Warsaw next May.

If this was to happen, it would be Roma’s first European final since finishing runners-up to Inter in an all-Italian UEFA Cup clash in 1991.