Roma 2 Lecce 0
Roma moved into the top half of Serie A today on the back of a convincing victory over Lecce which was overshadowed by a red card for Francesco Totti.
Nicolas Burdisso put the Giallorossi in front after little over an hour of dominance and man-of-the-match Mirko Vucinic made it two in the 76th minute.
However, Totti reacted badly to a foul off the ball by Ruben Olivera and both players were shown the red card, taking the gloss of an otherwise perfect evening at the Stadio Olimpico.
Roma survived an early scare when Daniele Corvia volleyed the ball against the crossbar from 20 yards out when there seemed to be no danger at all to Julio Sergio's goal.
The rattling of the woodwork woke the home side up and Vucinic took centre stage.
The Montenegrin stuck to the left-hand touchline, waiting for the ball before making a beeline for the penalty area, and the Lecce defence could not find any way of stopping him.
He first set up a chance for Marco Borriello, who headed just inches wide of the post, and then he set up an even better chance in the 28th minute, again from one of his many dangerous incursions from the left.
He passed the ball back from the goal line to Totti, whose shot was parried to Borriello.
He instinctively volleyed it back towards the goal and it cannoned off the crossbar to the Italy international, who this time buried the loose ball, but the linesman's flag was inexplicably raised when he touched the ball for the second time.
Five minutes later, Vucinic beat the offside trap to chest the ball down and volley it against the top of the crossbar.
He then cut in once again from the left only to see his shot saved by the legs of Lecce goalkeeper Antonio Rosati.
Despite their dominance, Roma could have gone behind before the interval when Julio Sergio left his goal and ventured out of his penalty area to the left where he was caught out by David Di Michele.
The Lecce forward pulled the ball back to Corvia, whose shot was blocked by Burdisso, who was the last man guarding the Roma goal.
The Giallorossi kept up the pressure in the second half with Borriello's shot tipped over the crossbar by Rosati after an hour.
Lecce failed to clear the resulting corner and John Arne Riise's cross was met by Burdisso, who headed the ball into the top right-hand corner from eight yards.
Borriello's header skimmed the top of the crossbar as Roma looked for a second, which they got in the 76th minute.
Unsurprisingly, it was Vucinic who raced in from the left and, this time, he managed to find the target into the far corner.
The goal was overshadowed by red cards for Totti and Olivera, who clashed moments after the ball hit the back of the net.
Totti was incensed and tried to chase after Olivera and he had to be stopped from reaching his rival by several Roma officials at the entrance to the tunnel.
As a result, he will miss the Rome derby with league leaders Lazio next week.