Roma supporters vent their anger ... with carrots

Around 50 supporters turned up at the Trigoria training ground with boxes of the vitamin-packed vegetable.

A banner helped to explain the coded meaning of the unusual gift: "Bon Appetit Rabbits," it read.

In Italian, the word for rabbit, "coniglio", is synonomous with coward.

Roma's French coach Rudi Garcia is under pressure after a 6-1 thrashing by Barcelona in the Champions League last week was followed by a 2-0 home defeat to Atalanta on Sunday.

The Barca reverse left the club's hopes of advancing to the knockout stages of Europe's elite competition in the balance.

Runners up to Juventus for the last two seasons, Roma currently stand fourth in Serie A, four points adrift of leaders Napoli.

Tuesday's protest was not the first time the worlds of football and fruit and veg have collided in Italy.

When the national squad was knocked out of the 1966 World Cup by North Korea, the players were famously pelted with rotten tomatoes on their return home.

But the symbolism of the Roma fans' action was arguably flawed: rabbits don't eat carrots in the wild and it is only thanks to cartoon character Bugs Bunny that they are thought to be particularly keen on the root vegetable.