Nine facts and figures on Roma 1-0 Napoli

We take a look at nine key stats from Roma’s important 1-0 win over Napoli in the last league match…

1

Luciano Spalletti recorded his first league win over Napoli at the Stadio Olimpico on Monday after drawing both of his previous attempts. Spalletti has a 100% record at the Stadio San Paolo as Giallorossi boss, with two wins from two - and five goals for and none against.

5

Roma’s 1-0 win over Napoli on Monday was a repeat of the result of the same fixture last April and made it five home wins in a row over the Partenopei (four in Serie A, one in the Coppa Italia), keeping the race for second prize alive in the process. The 163rd instalment in the long rivalry between Roma and Napoli – which also saw the Giallorossi beat Napoli for the first time in the 16th week of the second half of the season – consolidated Roma’s grasp on the head-to-head record between the two sides. Taking all Serie A, Coppa Italia and CONI Cup matches into account, the Giallorossi have won 63, drawn 53 and lost 46, scoring 216 and conceding 175.

7

Roma have kept seven clean sheets this Serie A season, with two of those coming against Napoli. This is the sixth time that the Giallorossi have done a double of clean sheets on the Partenopei, after the 1968-69, 1950-51, 1946-47, 1939-40 and 1936-67 seasons.

12

Radja Nainggolan scored the winner against Napoli with his 12th goal for Roma. Nainggolan, who has never scored more than one goal in a single game for Roma, has been the first or only goalscorer on ten occasions, while his has been the name on the scoresheet in a 1-0 Roma win on four occasions. Aside from the Napoli game, the other three were all away games against Bologna, Fiorentina and Genoa. Nainggolan’s goals-per-game ratio for the Giallorossi is 0.143, just a little way behind the two midfielders with the best ratio: Miralem Pjanic on 0.166 and Kevin Strootman on 0.152.

17

The Napoli win was yet more evidence of Roma’s tendency to score in the final 15 minutes of a match. Following on from last season, the 17 goals Roma have scored in the final 15-minute segment this time around represent 23% of their total of 74 from 35 league games. Generally speaking, the Giallorossi are more dangerous as the game wears on, scoring 31 in the final 30 minutes as opposed to 22 in the opening 30 minutes and 30 in the middle half hour. Moreover, the Giallorossi have scored 31 first-half goals as opposed to 43 in the second half. However, despite the large number of goals Roma have scored in the last 15 minutes, the Giallorossi’s goal difference in this period is only +5, compared with +11 for the first 15 minutes and +10 for the penultimate quarter of an hour.

22

By coming on as a second-half substitute against Napoli, Francesco Totti made his tenth Serie A appearance, a milestone he’s reached for 22 consecutive seasons since the 1994-95 campaign. The Giallorossi captain moves onto 598 career appearances in Serie A, keeping his prospects of reaching the 600-appearance mark by the end of the season alive. Totti is third in the all-time Serie A appearances stakes behind Paolo Maldini (647) and Javier Zanetti (615). After Totti come three goalkeepers in the form of Gianluca Pagliuca (592), Gigi Buffon (588) and Dino Zoff (570), defender Pietro Vierchowod (562), forwards Roberto Mancini (541) and Silvio Piola (537) and goalkeeper Enrico Albertosi (532).

50

Radja’s goal on Monday sealed Roma’s 50th league win over Napoli. Forty-nine have come in the modern format of Serie A, with the other falling in the two-round 1945-46 season. Napoli have now been on the losing side in Rome on 40 occasions, 33 in the league and seven times in cup competitions.

74

With three matches to go until the end of the season, Roma have already scored 74 goals to equal the second-best scoring return in Giallorossi history (set in the 2006-07 season, during Spalletti’s first tenure). Roma are 13 off the overall club record of 87 goals, set by Herbert Burgess’ Giallorossi side in the 34-game 1930-31 season (average of 2.56 goals per game). This season, Roma are scoring 2.11 goals per game on average, the fourth-best ratio in their history after the aforementioned 1930-31 season, the 1928-29 season (2.37) and the 1929-30 season (2.15).

290

Roma have now won 290 matches by a 1-0 scoreline since the club’s foundation in 1927, 190 at home and 100 on the road. The first was the 1-0 away win over AC Milan on 16 June 1929, which saw Gianangelo Barzan score the winner from the penalty spot. AC Milan were also the opposition for the Giallorossi’s first 1-0 win at home – it happened on 23 March 1930 at Campo Testaccio, Rodolfo Volk getting the goal. Between those two games, Roma also beat Lazio 1-0 on 8 December 1929 (their only 1-0 win in the period).