Troubled Inter earned only their third league win of the season on Saturday as they beat Cagliari 2-1 at the San Siro, while SS Lazio went top with a 0-0 draw at Napoli.
Udinese can return to the summit if they match or better Lazio’s result away to Parma, while Juventus, who will host Palermo, could also claim the Serie A lead if they win.
AC Milan failed to make the most of Lazio’s slip as they were held to a 0-0 draw at Fiorentina, leaving them a point behind the Romans.
Photo: AFP
Inter’s win left last year’s Champions League winners still down in 16th position ahead of yesterday’s games and only three points above the relegation zone.
The victory was crucial for Claudio Ranieri’s players, who have struggled at the bottom of the table all season.
Inter twice hit the woodwork in the first half when Cagliari goalkeeper Michael Agazzi tipped efforts from Giampaolo Pazzini and Mauro Zarate onto the bar.
Inter broke the deadlock nine minutes into the second half when Pazzini flicked on a Ricardo Alvarez free-kick for Thiago Motta to bundle home, although he was both offside and seemed to handle the ball.
Brazilian starlet Coutinho scored the second on the hour with a daisy cutter from 17 yards.
Cagliari had a goal from Joaquin Larrivey ruled out for offside and Davide Ballardini, the Sardinians’ third coach already this season, felt the decisions that went against his side were symptomatic of supposed favoritism toward the big teams.
Larrivey was well onside a minute from time, though, when he turned home Radja Nainggolan’s shot from the left.
Lazio needed a backs-to-the-wall effort at times to hold onto a point in Naples.
Napoli wasted a host of glorious chances as Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti had a stormer, twice pluinging to his left to keep out Ezequiel Lavezzi efforts and making an instinctive block from Edison Cavani.
Lavezzi wasted an open goal as he blazed an acrobatic volley over, while Cavani had the ball in the net only to see it ruled out for offside.
The champions dominated in Florence, but their run of five straight league wins still came to an end.
Milan did have the ball in the net in the first half, but Clarence Seedorf’s close-range volley from Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s dink was controversially ruled out for offside.
Pato almost snatched victory for Milan on his return from injury as a substitute, but Artur Boruc tipped his low shot onto the post before somehow also blocking Urby Emanuelson’s follow-up.
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