Di Natale gives Udinese win at Juve, Roma top

Antonio Di Natale continued his fairytale week with another neat finish in Udinese's surprise 1-0 win at Juventus in the Serie A yesterday.

Di Natale, who scored both goals in Italy's 2-1 win in Ukraine in Wednesday's Euro 2008 qualifier, headed in just after the break to knock an unfortunate Juve off top spot.

Roma now lead the table as the only side with three wins from three after Brazil defender Juan scored on his first start and Francesco Totti netted late on in a 2-0 win at Reggina.

Hernan Crespo's first-half finish helped champions Inter grind out a 2-0 home win over Catania, who protested the Argentine was offside.

Cesar added a second 11 minutes from time as injury-hit Inter, who started with striker Adriano, moved up to second on seven points.

Fiorentina substitute Christian Vieri thought he had grabbed the winner with a powerful header against former club Atalanta but Riccardo Zampagna scored an outrageous overhead flick with five minutes left to earn a 2-2 draw.

Fiorentina and Atalanta have five points along with Milan, who needed an injury-time goal from Alessandro Nesta to draw 1-1 at Siena on Saturday.

Juventus are on six points with promoted Napoli, who beat Sampdoria 2-0.

The first half had been quiet, like much of yesterday's action in the Serie A, but it suddenly burst into life when Udinese cut through Juve's defence with a nice interchange of passing which allowed Di Natale to head home.

Claudio Ranieri's Juventus pressed for an equaliser but Vincenzo Iaquinta's late header was ruled out for a foul by Alessandro Del Piero, who then clipped the underside of the bar with a superb curling free-kick.

It was a morale-boosting victory for Udinese, who had been hammered 5-0 by Napoli two weeks ago.

Roma were also subdued in the first period on the toe of Italy but Reggina soon succumbed in the second half when defender Juan ghosted round the back of the defence to prod home on his first start since a move from Bayer Leverkusen.

Totti then rifled in a second from inside the box to make sure of the points and send Luciano Spalletti's side clear at the top with nine points they have barely had to work for.

Alvaro Recoba scored the equaliser in Torino's 1-1 draw at Palermo while promoted Genoa came from behind to draw by the same score at home to bottom side Livorno. Lazio played out a dull 0-0 draw with Empoli on Saturday.

Next Fixtures

Saturday, Sept. 22
Udinese vs Reggina 18.00
Milan vs Parma 20.30

Sunday, Sept. 23 (15.00)
Atalanta vs Lazio
Cagliari vs Palermo
Catania vs Fiorentina
Empoli vs Napoli
Livorno vs Inter
Roma vs Juventus
Torino vs Siena
Sampdoria vs Genoa 20.30