Roma ended their recent poor run with a 2-0 win against Novara on Saturday that moved them up to seventh in Serie A ahead of yesterday’s matches.
Bojan Krkic and Pablo Osvaldo scored the goals three minutes apart to give the capital-based club only their second win in five games.
Earlier, Palermo beat Bologna 3-1 to maintain their perfect home record in Serie A.
Roma enjoyed two-thirds of possession, but took 72 minutes to break the deadlock.
Bojan latched onto a delightful chip over the top from Miralem Pjanic to finish with a fierce volley.
Bosnia international Pjanic set up the second as well with a pinpoint cross for Osvaldo to head home his fifth league goal of the season.
Although Roma had created far more, until that point they had been in danger of losing.
Novara had the ball in the net through a Nicolas Burdisso own goal in the first half, but it was chalked off for offisde.
Riccardo Meggiorini escaped one-on-one with goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg in the second period, but the Dutch shot-stopper saved his team.
In Sicily, Eran Zehavi, Matias Silvestre and Josip Ilicic scored the goals that sent Palermo fifth ahead of yesterday’s matches.
Palermo have won all five home encounters this season, but away from the Renzo Barbera stadium, they have picked up just one point and are yet to score.
Palermo coach Devis Mangia hit out at his critics and praised Slovenian playmaker Ilicic.
Zehavi opened the scoring on 13 minutes with his second goal of the season after Bologna goalkeeper Jean Francois Gillet spilled Ilicic’s shot.
Silvestre lost marker Nicolo Cherubin and kept his concentration despite the defender’s blatant attempt to push him, to head home a corner at the back post seven minutes into the second period.
Ilicic wrapped up the victory after running onto a through-ball from Ignacio Varela, holding off two defenders and slipping the ball under Gillet.
Gaston Ramirez scored a brilliant consolation goal three minutes from time, firing low into the corner following a one-two with Henry Gimenez, whose back-heeled return pass was ingenious.
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