Better late than never for the top three

Better late than never for the top three
Agence France Presse

Milan, February 19: Italian first division leaders AS Roma defeated bogey team Lecce 1-0 to stay six points clear of second-placed Juventus, who prevailed by a similar scoreline at Bari.

Roma did not break through until the 69th minute yesterday when Argentinian defender Walter Samuel headed home a freekick but Juventus left it even later at Bari with substitute Alessandro Del Piero scoring after 81 minutes.

It was also a late show from third-placed Lazio, the defending champions, whose Argentinian midfielder Diego Simeone scored against the run of play two minutes from time for another 1-0 win.

That combination of results ensured the positions in what is in effect a three-horse race for the Scudetto remain unchanged.

Roma have not won the title since 1982-3 and the closest they have come since was in 1985-6 when a shock 3-2 home defeat by Lecce on the last day of the season handed the Scudetto to Juventus when a draw would have enough.This time the luck was on the side of Roma when Brazilian defender Antonio Zago escaped punishment for a handball in his own penalty area.

Asked about the incident Roma coach Fabio Capello trotted out the time-honoured response: ‘‘I am not in a position to comment as I have not seen the TV replay.’’

Juventus too were coming up against a brick wall in bottom club Bari until Del Piero’s precious strike and had their hearts in their mouths when the hosts had a first-half goal disallowed.

Juve coach Carlo Ancelotti, a key player in Roma’s 1982-83 championship side, did not lose sight of the fact that Juve are still depending on slip-ups from his former side, saying: ‘‘Roma are just not giving us a chance - they are making no mistakes - if they win the Scudetto we will celebrate with them.’’ Lazio scored their late clincher through Simeone and coach Dino Zoff admitted: ‘‘Perugia put us in great difficulty especially in the first half but in football you know you are always in with a chance.’’

His Perugia counterpart Serse Cosmi said: ‘‘I just do not know what to say - we will just have to start again tomorrow and start thinking about our next match.’’Atalanta took a 40th-minute lead in their home match to Vicenza through Nicola Ventola but Vincenzo Sommese notched a second-half equaliser and the match finished 1-1.

In last evening’s match Brazilian Da Silva Matuzalem gave Napoli a 1-0 win against Inter Milan with a rasping shot and was then promptly sent off, his extravagant celebrations earning him a second yellow card. Napoli coach Emiliano Mondonico responded by bringing on midfielder Oscar Magoni for Brazilian striker Edmundo, who made his displeasure clear.

‘‘Napoli outclassed us and did what they wanted to do in midfield,’’ was the terse verdict of inter coach Marco Tardelli. Fiorentina took an early lead at Reggio Calabria through Enrico Chiesa but Andrea Zanchetta equalised for Reggina. The score finished 1-1 despite the sending off of Fiorentina’s Czech defender Tomas Repka. Three-second-half goals from Cameroonian forward Patrick Mboma, Portuguese winger Sergio Conceicao and Brazilian defender Junior gave Parma a somewhat flattering 3-0 win over Brescia. AC Milan were lucky to get a 3-3 draw with Bologna at the San Siro on Saturday night even though two goals from Ukrainian goal machine Andriy Shevchenko gave them a 2-0 first-half lead.