Roma beats Parma to maintain perfect start
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E-mail Xinhua, September 17, 2013
Roma came from behind to win 3-1 at Parma and moved joint top of the Italian Serie A on Monday.
The hosts went ahead in the 39th minute through Jonathan Biabiany, then Alessandro Florenzi scored the equaliser for Roma shortly after the restart.
Roma captain Francesco Totti made it 2-1 in the 70th minute with his first goal of the season, before Kevin Strootman put the game beyond Parma's reach from the penalty spot with five minutes remaining.
The result sees Roma remain perfect in Serie A this season and go level on nine points with Napoli, who won 2-0 over Atalanta on Saturday. Parma, meanwhile, are still winless after three rounds.
Roma head coach Rudi Garcia insisted that he isn't looking at the table.
"Physically we look good," he said. "It is always difficult to play away. You don't get the benefit you would playing at home.
"I am not looking at the standings at the moment. The only thing I'm counting are the points," he said.
His Parma counterpart Roberto Donadoni admitted that his side were "naive".
"We deserved better," he said. "We were naive though, and we lacked an edge in front of goal."
Roma should have broken the deadlock in the 21st minute when Miralem Pjanic found Maicon in the box but the Brazilian defender fired inches wide of the far post.
Parma were rewarded for their attack before the break. Biabiany got behind Mattia Cassani's cross and his powerful header beat Roma goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis.
Roma increased the tempo after the restart and drew level two minutes into the second half when Pjanic set up Florenzi in the box and his right-footed strike beat Mirante.
Then Strootman served Totti in the area and he beat the offside trap before firing towards the near post where Mirante could not reach.
Parma's hopes of an equaliser were dented when the referee pointed to the spot after Cassani brought down substitute Gervinho in the area.
Strootman made no mistake and struck a left-footed shot towards the centre of goal to beat Mirante and fire Roma to their third consecutive league win.
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