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Francesco Totti extended his lead in the Capocannoniere charts and ended his penalty curse in this comfortable victory.
Luciano Spalletti's men were the toast of Europe after their shock midweek elimination of favourites Olympique Lyonnais, but had just one win from their last four Serie A games. Cristian Chivu was suspended - and recovering from surgery for a fractured nose - joining Gilberto Martinez and Alberto Aquilani in the stands. Udinese were without a victory in five and struggling badly without the injured Vincenzo Iaquinta, Dias Felipe, Damiano Zenoni, Paulo Barreto and suspended Marco Motta.
Francesco Totti almost scored in the opening 40 seconds following Sulley Ali Muntari's error. He sprung the offside trap on Rodrigo Taddei's through ball and the angled drive skimmed the far post.
At the other end two minutes later Daniele De Rossi needed a sliding tackle to cut off Antonio Di Natale after he had skipped past Marco Cassetti. It was immediately a very lively game as Taddei, Totti and Amantino Mancini combined for the ex-Venezia man's strike deflected on to the side-netting.
Cesare Natali pulled up with a suspected thigh strain after seven minutes, making way for Zapotocny. Udinese stayed solid and went close with Siqueira's solo effort past the near post, but Siqueira foolishly gave away a penalty with a handling offence.
Totti has missed six penalties this season in all competition, but took the responsibility again and buried it past Morgan De Sanctis, side-footing to send him the wrong way, to give Roma the lead. It was his 142nd Serie A goal.
Totti flicked the ball with the outside of his right foot to set up Max Tonetto, the ex-Lecce man firing over, then Simone Perrotta chipped the defence to send Totti clear and De Sanctis rushed out to close him down.
Moments later Perrotta doubled the Giallorossi's advantage with a glancing header from six yards on Totti's taut cross from the left.
Philippe Mexes nodded a corner kick just wide, while Zapotocny almost scored an own goal in his attempts to anticipate Totti. From the resulting set-piece De Sanctis palmed away a Mancini free header from point-blank range, as Udinese's defending on dead-ball situations left a lot to be desired. More chaotic defending kept out Totti and Mancini on the stroke of half-time.
Udinese threw on ex-Roma youth product Gaetano D'Agostino and the visitors almost pulled one back with a bizarre move. De Rossi's header back towards his own goalkeeper was intercepted by Di Natale and Alexander Doni had to perform a point-blank reaction save.
However, the Giallorossi recovered from that scare and made it 3-0 soon after. A De Rossi free kick found Totti relatively unmarked from six yards for a precise header at the near post.
Doni set a new club record as the goalkeeper with the longest run of clean sheets at 589 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, beating Paolo Conti's previous best of 580, but it was ended by a Gyan Asamoah header from a corner kick at the near post.
Di Natale had a great chance on the counter-attack and seemed to get past Mexes, but he hesitated and the Roma defender was able to clear.
Udinese were stepping up the pressure against a Giallorossi side that seemed to be complacent, as D'Agostino's free kick smashed against the bar with Doni beaten.
D'Agostino's corner reached Di Natale to nod wide, but they too slowly ran out of steam.
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