Juventus piled more misery on crisis-ridden Roma with a 2-0 home victory on Saturday while Colombian center-back Ivan Cordoba scored an injury-time winner to send Inter top with a 3-2 win at rock bottom Reggina.
Juve were good value for their victory and found themselves in fifth place following a third straight Serie A victory.
Veteran forward Alessandro Del Piero scored the first and created the second.
PHOTO: AFP
But the crisis continues at Roma who have just eight points from nine games, are down in 17th place, just one above the relegation zone, and have lost their last four Serie A matches.
They have lost six of their nine matches, including all five away from home.
Roma actually came close to opening the scoring on 20 minutes as Christian Panucci’s cross from the right was missed by everyone and hit the far post.
But Juve quickly established control and center-back Giorgio Chiellini forced Roma goalkeeper Doni into a point-blank reaction save on 33 minutes.
Six minutes before the break, though, Del Piero gave the hosts the lead, planting a free-kick from 25m into the top corner.
Juve kept dominating after the break as Doni saved a speculative bicycle kick from compatriot Amauri before Marco Marchionni took a pass from Del Piero, beat Jon Arne Riise and dinked the ball over Doni to double the advantage on 48 minutes.
Inter didn’t have to wait long to open the scoring as Maicon’s shot beat Andrea Campagnolo on nine minutes. Patrick Vieira doubled the advantage on 24 minutes as he finished off good work from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ricardo Quaresma.
But Reggina fought back, Francesco Cozza firing home via a slight deflection from the edge of the box 11 minutes before the break. Franco Brienza then thrashed home a crisp strike from the edge of the box on 53 minutes to equalize.
But center-back Cordoba was in the right place at the right time to prod home the late winner from a corner.
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