Roma's 4-2 aggregate win over Real Madrid in the Champions League is no surprise to Italian soccer fans.
Luciano Spalletti's side are Serie A's most beautiful team to watch, and now the big results are following too.
"The lads played a perfect match. The team deserve it and have shown great maturity," Spalletti said after Wednesday's 2-1 win in Madrid in the last 16, second leg.
Roma compare with Arsenal in England and Barcelona in Spain. Their quick passing is a joy to behold and the fluency of movement makes a mockery of those who say formations are sacred.
Brazilian Mancini can pop up in any area of the field at any time, and rather than punish him as some coaches would, Spalletti actively encourages the midfielder.
Rodrigo Taddei, Alberto Aquilani, Simone Perrotta and David Pizarro are almost as adept at the trick while Italy's Daniele De Rossi offers a solid anchor to the fluid midfield.
Beating nine-times European champions 2-1 at home and away may finally make Europe stand up and take notice of a team that are second in Serie A and just six points behind Inter.
The gap would have been less if Inter had not equalised late on in a 1-1 draw at San Siro last month.
Wednesday's confident victory in the Bernabeu, where Taddei and super sub Mirko Vucinic headed in either side of Raul's strike, was the best preparation for the quarter-finals.
Last season Roma beat Manchester United 2-1 at home in the first leg of the last eight before being thumped 7-1 away.
Some teams would have been badly affected by such a defeat but Roma took it on the chin and realised it was a freak result.
Roma are having such a good season, and yet they are doing so with their captain and main striker enduring a tough time.
Francesco Totti won the European Golden Boot last season with 26 Serie A goals. This term he has managed 12 in the league but has failed to find his form after a foot complaint kept him out for over a month before the turn of the year.
Montenegro forward Vucinic, a fringe player before this season, has deputised for Totti superbly and made those who said Roma were a one-man team eat their words.
True to form for Spalletti's men, Vucinic has started playing in midfield lately. The Romans are ready to conquer again and this time they are using total football.