AC Milan and Udinese drew 4-4 at the San Siro on Sunday in a thrilling game that will give hope to Milan’s title rivals.
Udinese led 3-1 at one stage and also moved into injury-time with a 4-3 lead, but Milan were rewarded for a never-say-die attitude that saw them snatch a share of the spoils.
Milan’s lead at the top of Serie A was cut to four points as Napoli thrashed Juventus 3-0 thanks to an Edinson Cavani hat-trick.
Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale scored a brace, with Alexis Sanchez and German Denis also finding the net for the visitors.
However, a Pato double, a Medhi Benatia own-goal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s last-gasp leveler ensured the hosts avoided a second successive home defeat following their 1-0 reverse against Roma last month.
“Udinese played really well, they cause us problems, especially in the first half,” Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said. “After the break we were careless a few times, but we did well to get a draw, I think the draw is fair. My lads played a great match particularly in terms of character.”
Udinese opened the scoring in the 35th minute when midfielder Gokhan Inler’s shot beat goalkeeper Marco Amelia but came back off the post to Di Natale, who was left alone to slot home into an unguarded net.
Milan equalized on the stroke of halftime when Ibrahimovic crossed for Pato to tuck home from close range.
Sanchez put the visitors ahead again soon after the restart when he converted Mauricio Isler’s cross with a diving near-post header.
And when Di Natale escaped on the counterattack, turned inside Daniele Bonera and shot home, Milan looked certain to be heading for defeat.
However, in the 77th minute, Benatia inadvertently headed Thiago Silva’s cross beyond his own goalkeeper, Samir Handanovic.
Pato snatched his second eight minutes from time as he pounced on substitute Antonio Cassano’s pass, turned his marker and wrong-footed Handanovic.
However, there were two more twists to come as Denis struck on the counterattack as Milan were pushing up looking for a winner themselves.
Then deep into injury-time, Cassano teed up Ibrahimovic to finish crisply and snatch a draw.
Cavani is now joint top of the Serie A scoring charts as Juve fell to their second three-goal defeat in a row following Thursday’s 4-1 reverse at home to Parma.
Cavani scored a pair of headers in the first half and made it a hat-trick with his head nine minutes after the break.
Napoli moved above SS Lazio, who blew the chance to close the gap to Milan to three points as they lost 2-1 at home to Lecce, who started the day one off the bottom.
The visitors went ahead in the 39th minute when Jeda’s shot hit the post and went in off SS Lazio goalkeeper Fernando Muslera’s back.
Lazio captain Stefano Mauri equalized from close range at the start of the second period, but 20 minutes from time Carlos Gossmueller was left unmarked at the back post to score the winner.
Leonardo continued his winning start as Inter boss as his team came from behind to win 2-1 at Catania.
The hosts took a deserved lead when Alejandro Gomez mopped up the loose ball after Dejan Stankovic had headed Maxi Lopez’s goal-bound shot off the line.
That shocked Inter into life and Stankovic played in Esteban Cambiasso to finish cooly.
The Argentine scored his second when he headed home a cross from Maicon 11 minutes from time.
Sampdoria hurt AS Roma’s title chances as they also came from behind to win 2-1.
Mirko Vucinic gave AS Roma the lead, but goalkeeper Julio Sergio was sent off when conceding a penalty in bringing down Angelo Palombo after Juan’s woeful back-pass.
Nicola Pozzi scored from the spot and then former AS Roma midfielder Stefano Guberti hit the winner after another uncharacteristic Juan error.
In other action, Bologna downed Bari 2-0, Fiorentina edged Brescia 3-2, Cagliari held off Parma 2-1, while Cesena and Genoa drew 0-0, as did Chievo and Palermo.
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