Roma back to winning ways with 3-0 win over Palermo

AS Roma ended their three-match losing streak across all competitions as they earned a 3-0 win over Palermo away to remain second in the Serie A football championship here.

Roma came into Sunday's match with a 0-2 loss to Lazio in the Coppa Italia semi-final first leg, a 1-2 reversal against Napoli in the league and a 2-4 defeat to Lyon in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. But goals from Stephan El Shaarawy (22nd), Edin Dzeko (76th) and Bruno Peres (90+1) helped them beat relegation strugglers Palermo.

Stunned by the series of defeats, Roma head coach Luciano Spalletti made a number of changes to his side.

El Shaarawy gave them the lead from a perfectly-measured ball from Clement Grenier -- who was making his first start for the capital club.

The Frenchman continued to have an impressive game, and could have notched up further assists if teammates had done slightly better with his finishes.

But Palermo looked stubborn to concede to Roma and had their moments before Dzeko converted a Radja Nainggolan's pass in the 76th minute to notch his 30th goal of the season.

Peres completed a superb counter-attack in injury time to make it 3-0.

The win took Roma's points tally to 62 from 28 games as they trail Juventus by eight points. Napoli, who hammered Crotone 3-0 earlier in the day, are third with 60 points.

"We're happy with what we're doing, as Napoli probably are too. They're a very good side and every time they seem like they're in difficulty they dig deep and prove why they're a successful team," Roma coach Spaletti told his club's website.

"We need to focus on taking one step at a time without getting fixated on our overall objective. If you do well now, you set yourself up to do well later too."

--IANS

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