Roma's title chances hit by Lazio derby defeat
ROME: AS Roma's Serie A title hopes suffered a cruel blow as Valon Behrami scored an injury-time winner to give Lazio a 3-2 victory in the Rome derby at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.
Second-placed Roma was hoping to capitalize on Inter Milan's 1-1 draw at Genoa earlier in the day, but instead dropped to seven points behind the leader.
AC Milan's hopes of securing Champions League football next season took a hit as it crashed 2-1 at home to 10-man Sampdoria.
Fifth-placed Milan's only saving grace was a 2-0 loss for fourth-placed Fiorentina at Napoli, leaving the gap between the pair in the race for Champions League football pegged at four points.
Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti summed up the day's football.
"It's a day of regret for all the teams," he told Sky Sport. "For us, for Fiorentina and also for Juventus (which drew 0-0 at Empoli) who could have put a foot in next season's Champions League.
"But also for Roma who were dreaming of closing in on Inter. In fact, tonight, only the nerazzurri (Inter) are smiling."
In a thrilling match in Rome, the nominal visitor Roma took the lead in bizarre fashion on the half hour as Bahrami's clearance cannoned off Rodrigo Taddei's shoulder and rebounded into the goal.
Lazio was level a minute before halftime through Macedonia striker Goran Pandev and a Tommaso Rocchi penalty just before the hour mark after Juan was adjuged to have brought down Rolando Bianchi in the box.
Simone Perrotta restored parity just minutes later but Behrami turned from villain to hero in injury time to volley home on close range.
Roma, which was the form team in the league coming into the match, now has only nine matches left to try to close the seven-point gap on Inter, which is struggling having won only two of its last eight games.
The champion was also reduced to 10 men for the seventh time since the league resumed in January.
Inter took an early lead when Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic escaped down the left and put a cross on a plate for his Honduran strike-partner David Suazo to shoot home.
Inter's cause wasn't helped when young Portuguese midfielder Vitor Pele was sent off on the half-hour mark for a second booking, although it looked harsh.
Genoa laid siege to the Inter defense, which finally cracked five minutes from time as Julio Cesar pushed out a cross only for Marco Borriello, now Serie A's top goalscorer on 17 goals, to fire home an acrobatic volley.
At the San Siro, Milan's turbulent season took a downturn as world player of the year Kaka was taken off injured after less than 10 minutes.
Cristian Maggio prodded home for Samp when a scuffed shot-come-cross from Paolo Sammarco found him unmarked six yards out on 12 minutes.
On 25 minutes, things got worse for Milan as Gennaro Delvecchio finished off a sweeping Samp move that started on their own box when a Clarence Seedorf back-heel failed to find it's target.
The move was helped by some woeful defending from Kakha Kaldaze and Massimo Ambrosini, culminating in Delvecchio firing home off Zeljko Kalac's legs, although the Australian goalkeeper probably should have done better.
Milan's goal was fashioned by two 18-year-olds with Brazilian Pato crossing for Alberto Paloschi to head home in a crowded box. Samp had Stefano Lucchini sent off in injury time.
Fiorentina failed to capitalize on Milan's slip as it went down at Napoli, with Ezequiel Lavazzi scoring both goals.
AFP
(China Daily 03/21/2008 page22)
