Roma lost 2-0 at home to Atalanta at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday afternoon in Serie A, continuing their bad form following their loss to Barcelona on Tuesday night and the draw at Bologna last weekend.
Maicon was part of the starting line-up in the 6-1 loss to the Spaniards and his form only got worse after being sent off late on for Roma, allowing German Denis to score from the spot after Alejandro Gomez opened the scoring in the first half. The referee brandished three red cards in the final ten minutes, one to Maicon of Roma and others to Guglielmo Stendardo and Alberto Grassi of the away side.
Edin Dzeko had the first chance of the match after a promising start on a half volley when he found a couple of yards of space in the box on the end of a through ball but he couldn’t direct it accurately enough.
Defensive frailties were still evident in Rudi Garcia’s defence, though, and they were punished five minutes before the break when a poor mistake from Lucas Digne gave Alejandro Gomez the chance to score and he did so with style from the outside of the box into the corner of the net.
The hosts nearly found an equaliser soon after the start of the second half from a corner but Luca Cigarini in the Atalanta defence cleared the ball off the line to keep his side ahead.
Their game went from bad to much, much worse with 10 minutes to go after Maicon brought down Gomez in the box and not only got sent off but allowed German Denis to double his side’s lead.
The referee then reached for his red card again late on when he strangely sent off Atalanta’s Guglielmo Stendardo for an inconspicuous handball.
The visitors ended up finishing the game with nine men after Alberto Grassi was given a second yellow.
Roma could have gone to the top of the Serie A league table with a victory but are instead in fourth place, while Atalanta are now ninth.
