Inter Milan restored their eight-point advantage at the top of the Serie A on Sunday as they beat Empoli 1-0 and nearest challengers Roma crashed to a shock 3-0 defeat at Siena.
Inter's victory came despite them being forced to play most of the match with 10 men, and after Empoli were awarded a late penalty.
A debatable spot-kick on 34 minutes, fired home by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, was enough to secure an unconvincing win for the Nerazzurri.
Patrick Vieira was sent off shortly afterwards and Inter must have feared the worst when Empoli were given a penalty for a foul on Luca Saudati seven minutes from time.
But the veteran striker's effort was saved by Cesar to ensure Inter took all three points.
The icing on the cake of another Inter victory was learning struggling Siena had torn up the form book as they romped to only their second home win of the season to deal a devastating blow to Roma's title dreams.
Simone Vergassola, a Max Tonetto own goal and Mario Frick condemned them to their first defeat since September.
The shock triumph lifted Siena, who lost the reverse fixture by the same scoreline earlier in the season, out of the drop-zone.
But it could prove the final nail in the coffin for Roma's Scudetto chances as they conceded as many goals in 90 minutes at the Stadio Artemio Franchi as they had in their past eight Serie A matches.
Elsewhere, Cagliari gave their best performance of the season as they held Juventus to a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday.
The rock-bottom visitors have scored the fewest goals in Serie A, but took a surprise lead through Paolo Bianco on 56 minutes.
But their joy was short-lived as the advantage was to last a matter of seconds before Pavel Nedved pulled the Bianconeri level to ultimately earn them a point.
Mohamed Sissoko made his Serie A debut for Juve but it was Cagliari who attracted all the attention and came close to pulling off a memorable victory.
AC Milan brought Fiorentina's four-match winning run to an end as they scraped a 1-0 victory thanks to a second-half goal from substitute Alexandre Pato.
The hosts will feel bitterly disappointed with the defeat as they held the visitors under siege for long periods and always looked the more dangerous.
But Pato's fourth goal in six matches proved decisive, although the young star was forced off late on after picking up an injury.
Lazio beat Sampdoria 2-1 at the Stadio Olimpico to end a five-game winless run.
Stefano Mauri opened the scoring for the hosts on 37 minutes before Sampdoria striker Antonio Cassano equalised on the stroke of half-time.
But Tommaso Rocchi struck 13 minutes from the end to hand the Romans all three points.
Cristiano Lucarelli's missed penalty proved costly as Parma slipped to a 3-2 defeat against Atalanta.
The striker initially scored the 34th-minute spot-kick but the referee ordered it to be retaken because of players encroaching in the area and his weak second attempt was saved, squandering the chance to draw level after Maximiliano Pellegrino had given the visitors an 18th-minute lead.
Lucarelli made amends by equalising five minutes later but Gianpaolo Bellini and Sergio Floccari added second-half goals to seal the win.
Andrea Gasbarroni scored a penalty in the last minute but it was of little consolation to the hosts, who are now 15th in Serie A.
Torino gave themselves some breathing space in the relegation battle with an impressive 3-1 win at fellow strugglers Reggina.
Alessandro Rosina put the visitors ahead from the penalty spot midway through the first half and Roberto Stellone doubled their advantage 10 minutes before half-time.
Nicola Amoruso pulled one back for Reggina after 59 minutes, but Rosina netted his second spot-kick of the game seven minutes later to settle the contest.
Marco Borriello's 12th goal of the season earned Genoa all three points as they defeated Catania 2-1.
Sacramento Danilo gave the home side the lead in the 13th minute and they had chances to increase their advantage before a Cesare Bovo own goal in the 59th minute brought Catania level.
But Borriello won and converted a 71st-minute penalty to seal the win.
On Saturday, high-flying Udinese lost 3-1 to Napoli.
Napoli took the lead against Udinese through a Cristian Zapata own goal in the third minute, only for Simone Pepe to equalise five minutes later.
Napoli were then reduced to 10 men when Paolo Cannavaro was sent off, but Udinese could not make the most of their numerical advantage as they had a player of their own red carded in the 59th minute.
Pepe was the man to go and Udinese could not recover as Ezequiel Lavezzi netted twice in quick succession (74 and 75) to seal victory for Napoli.
Palermo returned to winning ways by seeing off Livorno 1-0.
Goalkeepers Alberto Fontana and Marco Amelia were in stunning form, stopping nearly everything that came at them.
Livorno even missed a penalty before Fabrizio Miccoli found the back of the net in the 76th minute to earn the Sicilians all three points and get them off to a good start in February after a torrid January.
Francesco Guidolin's side had lost all three games since the turn of the year, but their first win in 2008 puts them back in the race for a place in Europe.
Source : www.sportinglife.com
