Paolo Maldini’s last match for Milan at San Siro ended in a 3-2 loss to Roma yesterday, with the 40-year-old defender’s side beaten by Francesco Totti’s late free kick.

Maldini, who made his Milan debut as a gangly 16-year-old substitute back in 1985, has won a string of trophies including seven Italian league titles and five European Cups with the club.

But there was no happy ending in front of the home fans as his side twice had to equalise before finally being beaten by Totti’s free kick in the 85th minute.

John Arne Riise opened the scoring for Roma just before halftime, but Massimo Ambrosini brought Milan level in the 75th.

Jeremy Menez restored Roma’s lead five minutes later, Ambrosini drew Milan level again, but Totti stepped up to score the winner.

Ambrosini, who had kept his side in the game, was then sent off two minutes from time for arguing with referee Andrea De Marco. Milan’s last game of the season takes Maldini and his teammates to Fiorentina next weekend.

Newly-crowned champion Inter lost 2-1 at Cagliari, while Alessandro Del Piero scored twice as Juventus beat Siena 3-0 in new coach Ciro Ferrara’s first game in charge of the Turin club.

Inter leads with 81 points, Milan and third-place Juventus both have 71, whilst Fiorentina in fourth has 68 after a 1-1 draw at Lecce.

It was Roma who made the better start at San Siro and Mirko Vucinic set Rodrigo Taddei up early on, but the Brazilian’s shot was weak and goalkeeper Dida pushed the ball away for a corner.

In Milan’s defense, Maldini was relatively comfortable and even joined in the attack on occasions.

But there was nothing he could do to stop Roma opening the lead just before halftime, when fullback Riise blasted in a freekick from the edge of the area.

Clarence Seedorf came on for David Beckham at halftime to sharpen the attack, but it wasn’t until the further introductions of Ronaldinho and Gianluca Zambrotta that Milan came to life.

Kaka had a shot and a header pushed away, but from his cross Filippo Inzaghi shot, Doni failed to hold the ball and Ambrosini fired home the rebound.

Roma substitute Menez then put the visitors back in the lead, dribbling past Giuseppe Favalli to shoot low past Dida, but a minute later Milan was level again as Ambrosini poked home Kaka’s low cross.

Once Totti had scored his freekick, Milan became more and more desperate and it was whilst arguing with the referee for a penalty that hadn’t been given that Ambrosini received his second booking.

“It was a one-off match and I’m pleased with the way the team played and applied themselves,” Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. “The important thing is that today the team showed that they can play when they have the right preparation in the week.

“The boys knew they had to concentrate, despite everything else going on around them today. They showed great professionalism.”

Juventus comfortably beat Siena to move level on points with Milan.

Del Piero and Claudio Marchisio scored in the first half and Del Piero added his second from a free kick to give Ferrara winning start after being appointed coach.

“It couldn’t have gone any better, it has been an intense week, but we had a good preparation and I have to thank the players for the way they applied themselves,” Ferrara said.

“I gambled on Alex and he did well, scoring two goals for me. I needed a bit of help from my captain.”

All matches yesterday were preceded by a minute’s silence for the 19-year-old Vicenza fan who died overnight after yesterday’s accident at Parma.

Also yesterday, it was: Atalanta 2, Palermo 2; Catania 3, Napoli 1; Chievo Verona 0, Bologna 0; Sampdoria 2, Udinese 2; and Torino 2, Genoa 3.