Last weekend's sport had a latin flavour of sorts. Not at Pittodrie, where the fare was of the typically stodgy SPL variety, but in Australia where Victoria was victorious in Victoria, Azarenka winning the Ladies Singles title at the Australian Open tennis. Not quite so "when in Rome" was the top sported by one of Novak Djokovic's team the following day. I puzzled over why anyone in the competitors' area would wear a "New South Wales" emblazoned top in the state of Victoria before the Australian cent dropped "NSW" = "Nike Sports Wear".

As for those in Rome, they're about to see a novelty at the Olympic Stadium, with the round ball replaced by the wrong shaped version. The Azurri's 6 Nations home fixtures will be held there while work is carried out on the Stadio Flaminio, to bring its capacity up to 47,000. It remains to be seen whether Scotland will fare better trying to kick the ball over the bar in the 1960 Olympics venue.

One who has been decidedly successful with the goal nets in place, is the legendary Francesco Totti, 35 year old captain of AS Roma. A local boy made good, that is unless you prefer the sky blue of Lazio to the wine red of Roma. Part of the legend that is Totti is that Lazio scouts were chased out of his parents' house before he, or perhaps his parents signed on the dotted line for Roma. He was just 13 at the time. Twenty two years on and he's still wearing Roma's colours, with a new record to his name. Two weeks ago 33,000 were present to witness his latest feat. AC Cesena in the midst of a battle to avoid relegation from Serie A were the visitors to the Olympic Stadium.

Their cause wasn't helped as Totti struck twice in the first eight minutes, goals number 210 and 211 of his career. The second goal saw him overhaul a record holder of over 50 years, Gunnar Nordahl, who netted 210 for AC Milan.

Until this month that made him the all-time Italian Serie A top scorer for one club. Now the record is Totti's, although it has taken him a while more to rack up the record than Nordahl. The Swede scored his 210 for Milan in 257 appearances whereas it has taken "Il Capitano" Totti 486 matches to surpass him, since making his debut in March 1993 against Brescia. He had to wait for the opening game of the 1994/95 season to open his account with a goal against Foggia. Since then he's twelve times made it into Serie A double figures in the scoring charts, winning the Golden Boot with 26 strikes in 2006/07.

He was made to wait for his record breaking moment as new Roma coach Luis Enrique, only six years Totti's senior, used him sparingly in the early part of the season.

His one club scoring record may well stand forever, though Alessandro Del Piero of league leading Juventus is only 25 behind. Even so, with two and a half seasons left on his contract, Totti will be trying to make his way up the all time Serie A scoring charts, headed by Silvio Piola, who scored 274 times for four clubs. At the moment, Totti lies fifth with another 15 required to lift him to second spot. Again its Gunnar Nordahl he'd have to dislodge before an attempt on the summit.

As for Serie A, Roma's 5-1 victory over Cesena was their fifth in succession. With a second consecutive home match as the return set of fixtures saw Bologna travel to Rome, hopes were high that Roma could stay in contention for the European places. Disappointment followed as

Bologna took the lead with a di Vaio goal, before Pjanic struck back 5 minutes later as Roma rescued a point. Totti made no progress on the goalscoring front against a Bologna side whose second consecutive point was a precious one at the lower end of the table.

At the top of the table it looks like a two way fight between Juventus, undefeated after 20 matches and AC Milan. Juventus last Saturday night saw off the challenge of Udinese, whose coach Francesco Guidolin had hailed his club's 3rd place as the real achievement of the first half of the Italian season. A position founded on their home strength, 9 wins and 1 draw, making up 28 of their current tally of 38.

When Antonio Flores equalised for Udinese in the 56th minute it looked as if the surprise packet of the season might prise a point from Juve. The Udinese joy was short lived as a second strike by Alessandro Matri saw the league leaders clad in centenary pink safely to another three points.

It was never in doubt that AC Milan would stay hard on their heels as last Sunday they were at home to Dons U.S. opponents of 1967, AS Cagliari. The

Sardinians have not got the better of Milan in their last 18 attempts. Even without the injured Gattuso, Boateng and Aquilini, goals from Serie A leading scorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Nocerino and Ambrosini saw that total click up to 19. As for the Cup? The Coppa Italia has reached the semi-final stage and that certainly pulled out a cracker, AC Milan v Juventus, while Napoli take on Siena in the other tie.

George Rutherford is redmatchday Magazine's European correspondent