AS Roma vs Genoa - Totti set for fond farewell as Roma host Genoa

Posted Saturday, May 27, 2017 by PA

Roma will bid a fond farewell to long-serving captain Francesco Totti when Genoa visit for the season-finale on Sunday, but they cannot be distracted from the task at hand with automatic qualification to the Champions League on the line.

Although their pursuit of the title has fallen short - they sit four points behind newly-crowned champions Juventus - Roma still have business to complete with Napoli just one point behind and both keen to avoid the Champions League qualifier that comes with third place.

"It's a massive game for us and one we simply have to win because three points would mean we'd be sure of finishing second - a huge target for us and for the club," defender Kostas Manolas told Sky Italia.

"Roma deserve to be playing in the Champions League and we players want to be playing in it."

Roma will be hoping Genoa - whose relegation worries are at an end - will not provide major opposition and allow them to get on with giving Totti a suitable send-off following his remarkable career in the capital.

The 40-year-old forward, who made his debut for the Giallorossi in 1993, announced on Thursday that this would be the final fixture of a Roma career in which he has won one Scudetto and two Coppa Italias with his boyhood club.

Totti, who has scored more than 300 goals in over 780 appearances for Roma, has been offered a directorship at the Stadio Olimpico, but it remains unclear whether he will accept the role.

He signed a new playing contract last summer but has barely featured, with coach Luciano Spalletti sticking with a dynamic forward line that kept Roma in the title race until the final weeks of the season.

The tributes have already begun for a man who has been a symbol of the club for more than two decades.

"It really has been an honour and they get that here in Rome because not many people can say they played with Totti," said Daniele De Rossi, the 33-year-old midfielder who is himself a one-club man to date.

"Playing alongside him as a Roma fan and for so many years, it's something to brag about. I'll be able to tell everyone about it. It's massive."