Roma made it 16 games unbeaten in all competitions with a 1-0 defeat of nine-man Catania in the Coppa Italia quarter-finals.
Roma dominated the game but found Catania a difficult team to break-down in the first half, but things started to turn in their favor in the 59th minute when Catania defender Giuseppe Bellusci pulled down Rodrigo Taddei on the edge of the area and was shown a red card.
Roma finally got the breakthrough there play deserved 15 minutes later when Daniele De Rossi (74) drove Okaka Chuka’s cut-back into the bottom corner.
“We knew that Catania would give their all in defense and try to play on the counterattack,” Roma coach Claudio Ranieri said. “We weren’t too concerned with how we played tonight, we just wanted to reach the semifinals.”
Roma will play the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal between AC Milan and Udinese, on Feb. 3 and 10.