Milan lose touch with Inter after Torino draw

AFP - 23 November 2008 18:30

Roma´s Head Coach Luciano Spalletti gives a press conference in London, England, in October 2008. AS Roma captured their first away victory of the season as Luciano Spalletti´s team continued their recent resurgence with a 3-0 win at Lecce on Sunday.

ROME (AFP) - Alessandro Rosina fired home a penalty 12 minutes from time to earn Torino a 2-2 draw at home to AC Milan on Sunday and dent the seven-time European champions title hopes.

Milan are second in Serie A but are now three points behind bitter city rivals Inter Milan, who beat third placed Juventus 1-0 on Saturday, following these two dropped points.

It was also the third time this season they have failed to win away to lowly rivals following previous stalemates at Cagliari and Lecce.

Even so, Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti wasn't too disappointed.

"I'm partially satisfied. We could have managed the game better in the second half, we need to be more compact and we made Torino work hard," he said.

"We had the chance to go 3-1 up but we didn't manage it."

Roberto Stellone nipped in front of his marker Kakha Kaladze on 25 minutes to head home a cross from Rosina at the near post to give the hosts the lead.

But just four minutes later Milan were level after teenage Brazilian forward Pato brilliantly killed a firm pass from Gennaro Gattuso as he beat the offside trap and then fired high into the roof of the net.

On 34 minutes Milan were in front thanks to a rifled free-kick from Ronaldinho, who is already making a name for himself in Italy for spectacular strikes.

But as Milan tried to hold on, a cross from the left hit Kaladze on the thigh and rebounded onto his arm, with the referee pointing to the spot and Rosina made sure the points were shared.

Earlier in the day, AS Roma captured their first away victory of the season as Luciano Spalletti's team continued their recent resurgence with a 3-0 win at Lecce.

Roma began the day just one place above the relegation zone but their predicament is looking less desperate following a second straight league win -- the first time this season they have managed that feat.

Prior to this victory they had lost five and drawn one of their six away matches.

But on the back of recent home victories over Chelsea in the Champions League and city rivals Lazio in the league, Roma's confidence is starting to return and results are beginning to improve.

But despite being upwardly mobile Spalletti refused to speculate on what objectives his team could achieve this season.

"I don't know right now what our aims can be," he said. "We will see. We need to win matches.

"We've rediscovered our quality but we have to keep our feet on the ground. For sure we played well, it's always difficult to win 3-0 away from home."

One major change made by Spalletti during this run was to switch from his usual formation of one man up front to playing Mirko Vucinic alongside Francesco Totti and both scored in this win.

Vucinic hit the net after just 11 minutes with an angled left-foot shot from Totti's pass.

Brazilian centre-back Juan then doubled the advantage seven minutes before the break after Matteo Brighi's shot was deflected into his path.

Just after the restart Totti added the third with a delightful chip over goalkeeper Francesco Benussi after latching onto a through ball from Brighi.

Napoli failed to move into the top three as they conceded a goal five minutes into injury time in a 2-2 home draw with Cagliari.

Slovakia midfielder Marek Hamsik gave Napoli a ninth minute lead but although they dominated throughout, Uruguayan Diego Lopez equalised on 56 minutes after Gennaro Iezzo had parried a header from Daniele Conti.

Argentina forward Ezequiel Lavezzi fired home a stunning free-kick to give the hosts the lead for a second time but Conti converted a cross from Brazilian Jeda to give the Sardinians an unlikely share of the spoils.

Serie A top scorer Diego Milito missed a penalty and had a goal disallowed but scored the opener as Genoa drew 1-1 at Lazio.

Genoa looked to be heading for victory until their Brazilian goalkeeper Rubinho spilled French midfielder Ousmane Dabo's speculative long range strike into his own net.