Serie A Weekly welcomes writer Anthony Wright to our pages, a true Maggica

Sunday evening’s win against Genoa was described as the game of Roma?s
past, present and future as Simone Perrotta, Francesco Totti and Alessio
Romagnoli gave the Giallorossi their third successive win. Perrotta
wrapped up the game with a close-range finish into the roof of the net on
his 10th appearance of the season (all off the bench), Romagnoli scored
his first senior goal on his first Serie A start, but the real story was
about Totti equalling Gunnar Nordahl on 225 league goals.

Knowing that he would miss the clash with Atalanta through suspension,
Totti said after the Juventus game that “I won’t play at Atalanta, so I
will score a double in the game after against Genoa and I’ll get above him
then”. When Cesare Bovo fouled Daniele De Rossi in the penalty area (one
of several debatable decisions from referee Andrea Gervasoni) in the first
half, the stage was set for Totti as he lined up the spot kick under his
beloved Curva Sud.

The captain made no mistake and took the acclaim of the fans as he joined
Nordahl as Serie A?s second top goalscorer of all time. In fact, La
Repubblica have wasted no time in questioning just how many goals Silvio
Piola is ahead of Totti as they debate whether the 1945/46 season should
be counted in the statistics.

The moment seemed to get to Roma though as they lost their concentration
and Atalanta dominated for most of the rest of the first half. After half
time though, Totti once again showed how invaluable he is to his team as
he set up goals two and three. An inch perfect corner picked out Romagnoli
just before the hour, and the 18-year-old beat Luca Antonelli in the air
with embarrassing ease to make it 2-1. In the final few minutes, Perrotta
found Totti in space on the right wing; while Totti lined up a ball along
the six yard line, Perrotta continued his run to smash home the cross.

Two assists and a historic goal it was some night for Totti who
admitted after the game, “I tried to get [the goal] in front of my
fans because I thought it was only right to get this record in front of
them to thank them for everything they’ve given me. It’s a reciprocal
love, I’ll always take them with me”. Totti was greeted on the pitch at
full time by his two children, and he added that “I didn’t think they
would come, as they had not been well during the week it was the most
beautiful surprise of the evening”.