Serie A round-up

Inter open up gap; Juve stunned by Catania; Roma boost Euro hopes; Napoli climb

Last updated: 20th December 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Serie A round-up

Eto'o: Inter's matchwinner

Click below for individual match stats
Genoa P Bari P
Juventus 1 Catania 2
Livorno 3 Sampdoria 1
Napoli 2 Chievo 0
Palermo 1 Siena 0
Roma 2 Parma 0
Udinese P Cagliari P
Inter Milan 1 Lazio 0

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League leaders Inter Milan claimed the spoils at home to struggling Lazio to open up an eight-point lead at the Serie A summit.

Elsewhere, Juventus suffered a shock home defeat at the hands of Catania, Roma climbed above Parma and Livorno triumphed against Sampdoria.

Lazio put up little fight against Inter and the only surprise was that the champions did not manage to score more goals.

Samuel Eto'o scored the only one in 14th minute at the second attempt after Dejan Stankovic found him with a cross.

Fernando Muslera saved Eto'o's header but the ball fell kindly to the Cameroon striker to lash home past the grounded goalkeeper.

Juventus' hopes of climbing above AC Milan and into second in the table were left in tatters as they were beaten at home by struggling Catania.

Ciro Ferrara's side crashed to their third successive defeat to increase the pressure on the coach, with the club also facing investigation after racist chanting from their fans.

Jorge Martinez fired the visitors into the lead from the penalty spot in the 24th minute after Tiago had been penalised before Hasan Salihamidzic levelled midway through the second period.

But it was the Sicilian side who had the last laugh with Gianvito Plasmati setting up Mariano Izco for the winner three minutes from time with a breakaway goal to edge off the foot of the table.

Siena are now Serie A's bottom club after they went down to a 1-0 defeat to Palermo, with Edinson Cavani scoring the only goal of the game in the 40th minute.

Important

Roma claimed an important success over fellow UEFA Champions League hopefuls Parma, climbing above their opponents and into fourth place with a 2-0 victory at the Stadio Olimpico.

Nicolas Burdisso broke the deadlock early in the second period with Matteo Brighi making sure of the points in the closing moments, shortly after Parma's Massimo Paci saw red for two bookable offences.

Sampdoria's hopes of challenging for a top-four finish were undermined as they slumped to a 3-1 reverse at the hands of struggling Livorno.

Thomas Danilevicius bagged a second-half brace with Nelson Rivas also on the scoresheet before the interval.

Samp had taken an early lead through Antonio Cassano but were undone after that and ended the match with 10 men as Marius Stankevicius was given his marching orders 16 minutes from time after picking up two yellow cards.

Napoli jumped to sixth in the table and to within a point of the top four as they recorded a 2-0 success against Chievo.

Marek Hamsik's early penalty set the hosts on their way with Fabio Quagliarella making sure of the points three minutes from time.

Genoa's clash with Bari and Udinese's home meeting with Cagliari both fell victim to the severe weather which has hit Europe in recent days.

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