AS Roma beat Lecce 2-0 at home on Saturday, thanks to goals from Nicolas Burdisso and Mirko Vucinic, to climb up the rankings of Italian Serie A.

Both teams finished with 10 men when Roma captain Francesco Totti and Ruben Olivera clashed in the buildup to the second goal, and referee Andrea Gervasoni immediately sent the pair off.

Totti's automatic one-game ban will rule him out of the Rome derby on Nov. 7 but he could face further sanctions after he chased Olivera toward the tunnel.

Roma survived an early scare when Daniele Corvia volleyed the ball against the crossbar from 20 yards out when there seemed to be no danger at all to Julio Sergio's goal.

The rattling of the woodwork woke the home side up and Vucinic took centre stage to help Roma dominate the match.

Despite their dominance, Roma could have gone behind before the interval when Julio Sergio left his goal and ventured out of his penalty area to the left where he was caught out by David Di Michele.

The Lecce forward pulled the ball back to Corvia, whose shot was blocked by Burdisso, who was the last man guarding the Roma goal.

The Giallorossi kept up the pressure in the second half with Borriello's shot tipped over the crossbar by Rosati after an hour.

Lecce failed to clear the resulting corner and John Arne Riise's cross was met by Burdisso, who headed the ball into the top right-hand corner from eight yards.

Marco Borriello's header skimmed the top of the crossbar as Roma looked for a second, which they got in the 76th minute.

Unsurprisingly, it was Vucinic who raced in from the left and, this time, he managed to find the target into the far corner.

The goal was overshadowed by red cards for Totti and Olivera, who clashed moments after the ball hit the back of the net. Totti was incensed and tried to chase after Olivera and he had to be stopped from reaching his rival by several Roma officials at the entrance to the tunnel.

As a result, he will miss the Rome derby with league leaders Lazio next week