Little change at the top as leaders stumble

Juventus and Milan were held to draws to keep things tight at the Serie A summit as only one of the top seven teams managed to win yesterday.

Sixth-placed Roma’s 4-0 thrashing of fifth-placed Inter was the lone success for the leading teams.

Leaders Juve were held 0-0 at home to lowly Siena while second-placed Milan shared a goalless stalemate with seventh-placed Napoli.

Udinese, in third, and Lazio, fourth, both lost in a terrible day for the country’s top brass, although it wasn’t a great afternoon for entertainment either with four scoreless stalemates.

At the San Siro, Milan had Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent off for violent conduct but still came closest to winning.

Robinho wasted a glorious chance to give Milan the lead from Ibrahimovic’s flick when he was through one-on-one with goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis but he screwed his effort wide of the upright.

Midway through the second half, Ibrahimovic was given his marching orders for petulantly and needlessly slapping Salvatore Aronica, who responded, almost comically, by slapping Antonio Nocerino, behind whom the big Swede had been standing when he launched the intial assault.

Aronica, however, escaped punishment.

Playing against 10 men, Napoli created a great chance when Ezequiel Lavezzi picked out Edinson Cavani at the back post but his header was woeful.

But Milan suddenly proved more dangerous on the counter and Urby Emanuelson set up Robinho only for De Sanctis to deny the Brazilian.

Juve dominated throughout against Siena in Turin but it was the visitors who should have won it when Gianluigi Buffon made amends for spilling Reginaldo’s shot by somehow keeping out Alessandro Gazzi’s follow-up from five yards out.

It may be a missed opportunity for the leaders but they still have a point advantage on Milan and with a game in hand.

Roma kept themselves in the Champions League hunt by hammering Inter 4-0 at the Stadio Olimpico.

It was a miserable return to the Italian capital for Inter boss Claudio Ranieri, who resigned from Roma a year ago. His side have now picked up only one point from three games following a run of seven straight wins.

Juan opened the scoring on 13 minutes with a towering header from a Francesco Totti corner.

Fabio Borini doubled the lead four minutes before the break as he ran onto Miralem Pjanic’s flick, cut inside Walter Samuel and then shot through Julio Cesar’s legs.

And four minutes after the break he beat the offside trap to race on to Juan’s through ball, held off Lucio and again shot home between Cesar’s legs.

Bojan Krkic wrapped up the scoring, and a shambolic defensive performance from the visitors, a minute from time as the diminutive striker held off the attentions of three defenders on the edge of the box before firing home into the corner.

Udinese held onto third spot despite losing 3-2 at Fiorentina.

Emblematic captain Alessandro Di Natale gave them a 14th-minute lead with a clever dinked finish that deceived goalkeeper Artur Boruc, although it looked like it was really a mishit.

But the hosts were level six minutes before the break after Mehdi Benatia, on his return from African Cup of Nations duty with Morocco, handled a cross in the box and Stevan Jovetic despatched the resulting penalty.

And the hosts went in front on 56 minutes as Mattia Cassani headed home Manuel Pasqual’s cross.

In a disastrous return for Benatia, he gave away another, although dubious, penalty for bringing down Jovetic, who converted his second spot-kick before Gabriel Torje scored Udinese’s second in the last minute of the match.

Genoa beat Lazio 3-2 in the early match yesterday to boost their own European qualification hopes while denting their visitors’ prospects of securing a Champions League finish.

Rodrigo Palacio opened the scoring with a piece of genial invention before a Bosko Jankovic brace killed the game within a minute of the restart.

Serie A

Chievo 1
Thereau 50;
Parma 2
Giovinco 47; Luciano 69 og;

HT: 0-0. Att: 6,000.

Fiorentina 3
Jovetic 39p, 84p; Cassani 56;
Udinese 2
Di Natale 14; Torje 90;

HT: 1-1. Att: 16,684.

Genoa 3
Palacio 10; Jankovic 25, 46;
Lazio 2
Ledesma 54 pen; Gonzalez 90;

HT: 2-0. Att: 22,000.
Red card: Diakite (L) 82.

Juventus 0
Siena 0

Att: 35,392.

Lecce 0
Bologna 0

Att: 6,000.
Red card: Carrozzieri (L) 74,

Milan 0
Napoli 0

Att: 44,011.
Red card: Ibrahimovic (M) 64.

Novara 0
Cagliari 0

Att: 8,000.

Palermo 2
Miccoli 29 pen; Budan 49;
Atalanta 1
Moralez 56;

HT: 1-0. Att: 15,302.
Red card: Consigli (A) 27.

Roma 4
Juan 13; Borini 41, 49; Krkic 89;
Inter 0

HT: 2-0. Att: 33,000.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Juventus	21	12	9	0	33	13	45
Milan	22	13	5	4	43	19	44
Udinese	22	12	5	5	33	20	41
Lazio	22	11	6	5	33	23	39
Inter	22	11	3	8	34	29	36
Roma	21	10	4	7	35	25	34
Napoli	22	7	10	5	36	24	31
Palermo	22	9	4	9	32	32	31
Genoa	21	9	3	9	31	38	30
Fiorentina	21	7	7	7	23	19	28
Cagliari	22	6	9	7	20	23	27
Parma	21	7	6	8	27	34	27
Chievo	21	6	6	9	17	27	24
Atalanta	21	7	8	6	25	27	23
Catania	19	5	8	6	22	28	23
Bologna	21	5	7	9	18	26	22
Siena	21	4	8	9	21	22	20
Lecce	22	4	5	13	22	38	17
Cesena	21	4	4	13	13	31	16
Novara	21	2	7	12	18	40	13

Top scorers
16 goals: Di Natale (Udinese).
15 goals: Ibrahimovic (Milan).
13 goals: Palacio (Genoa), Jovetic (Fiorentina).
12 goals: Milito (Inter), Denis (Atalanta), Cavani (Napoli), Klose (Lazio).

Next fixtures
Thursday: 20.45 Lazio vs Cesena.
Saturday: 18.00 Udinese vs Milan. 20.45 Cagliari vs Palermo.
Sunday: 15.00 Atalanta vs Lecce; Catania vs Genoa; Parma vs Fiorentina; Inter vs Novara. 20.45 Bologna vs Juventus.
Monday: 20.45 Napoli vs Chievo; Siena vs Roma.

Serie B
Brescia p - Torino p
Vicenza 1 - Cittadella 4

Standings: Pescara 51; Sassuolo, Torino 50; Verona 48; Padova 45; Varese 41; Reggina, Bari (-2) 36; Brescia 35; Sampdoria, Cittadella 34; Juve Stabia (-4), Grosseto 33; Livorno 29; Vicenza 27; Crotone (-1) 26; Modena 24; Empoli, Albinoleffe, Gubbio 23; Ascoli (-7) 22; Nocerina 18.

Prima Divisione ‘A’
Carpi vs Ternana 1-1; Foggia vs Como 1-2; Foligno vs Reggiana 1-2; Lumez-zane vs Spal pp; Pavia vs Monza 0-0; Pro Vercelli vs Benevento 3-0; Sor-rento vs Avellino 2-0; Tritium vs Pisa 0-0; Viareggio vs Taranto 0-0.

Standings: Ternana 48; Taranto 47; Carpi, Pro Vercelli 40; Sorrento 38; Benevento 35; Avellino, Como 31; Tritium 30; Lumezzane, Foggia 28; Pisa 27; Reggiana 26; Spal 20; Monza 18; Viareggio 15; Foligno 12; Pavia 10.

Prima Divisione ‘B’
Andria vs Trapani 1-2; Carrarese vs Triestina 3-0; Latina vs Barletta 1-1; Pergocrema vs Prato 0-0; Siracusa vs Feralpisalo 1-0; Spezia vs Cre-monese 0-0.

Standings: Trapani 43; Siracusa 42; Spezia 35; Carrarese 34; Lanciano, Barletta, Cremonese 32; SudTirol, Portogruaro 31; Pergocrema 30; Triestina 26; Frosinone 23; Latina, Prato 22; Andria, Piacenza 21; Bas-sano 18; FeralpiSalo 17.