Inter, Fiorentina march on as Napoli, Roma slip
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Inter Milan and Fiorentina maintained their title push as fellow hopefuls Napoli and Roma dropped precious points in a dramatic weekend of Italian Serie A action. Champions Juventus stayed in the hunt with a 2-0 win at Lazio on Friday that secured a fifth straight win for Massimiliano Allegri's men ahead of their final Champions League group game away to Sevilla.
But Inter and Fiorentina were arguably the biggest winners after 1-0 and 3-0 wins over Genoa andUdinese respectively took on fresh importance in the light of Roma's 1-1 draw at Torino and Napoli's 3-2 shock reverse at Bologna.
Roberto Mancini won seven trophies including three consecutive league titles in his previous spell at Inter in 2004-2008 and the Nerazzurri are now top with a one-point lead on Fiorentina. Napoli dropped to third at two points behind, with Roma in fourth at five points off the pace and Juventus trailing one point further back.
There were shocks elsewhere as Sassuolo raced to a 3-0 lead inside 39 minutes at Sampdoria before prevailing 3-1 to hand the Genoa-based side their third consecutive defeat since Vincenzo Montella replaced Walter Zenga. It moved Eusebio Di Francesco's surprise package up to sixth, seven points behind Inter and one ahead of Atalanta, who followed their shock 2-0 defeat of Roma last week with a 3-0 rout of Palermo that has piled the pressure on the Sicilians' new coach Davide Ballardini.
In Sunday's late game AC Milan laid seige to Carpi's goal throughout but settled for a scoreless draw that left them in eighth, ten points behind city rivals Inter.