Italy Round-Up: Mutu on the spot as Juve rue missed opportunity
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Your support makes all the difference.An 89th-minute Adrian Mutu penalty gave Fiorentina a dramatic 1-1 home draw with Juventus in Serie A yesterday. Francesco Totti struck twice as Roma took advantage to claim a share of second place with a 3-0 win at Parma, who had Bernardo Corradi sent off in the 26th minute for a second yellow card. But the real beneficiaries are the champions, Internazionale, who are now three points clear at the top with 17 points from seven games courtesy of Saturday's 2-1 win over Napoli. Fiorentina are fourth with 13 points and remain unbeaten.
Juventus' Italian striker Vincenzo Iaquinta opened the scoring in the 23rd minute when he latched on to a loose header and coolly slotted the ball into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.
The goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon saved a deflected Riccardo Montolivo shot superbly with his feet, while Fiorentina's last line of defence, Sebastien Frey, pushed out a thunderous Pavel Nedved effort before half-time.
Fiorentina were unlucky not to win a penalty six minutes after the break when Franco Semioli was sandwiched by two Juventus defenders in the area. The visitors looked to be heading to their third consecutive win, but Nicola Legrottaglie handled the ball at the death and former Juventus forward Mutu made no mistake from the penalty spot.
Roma took the lead at Parma after just two minutes, with a low, diagonal Totti drive although the television replays suggested the ball might have been out of play when Mirko Vucinic made the final pass.
The Roma captain set up the second, threading the ball through to the Brazilian midfielder Mancini, who fired in an angled shot, and completed the rout himself eight minutes from time.
Julio Cruz scored twice to give Inter their win over promoted Napoli on Saturday. The Argentine striker Cruz tucked away Zlatan Ibrahimovic's pass after a quick break on 20 minutes and then chested down Dejan Stankovic's chip just inside the box to fire home.
Napoli bagged a deserved goal when Roberto Sosa headed in with five minutes to go. Around a thousand of their fans, who were not supposed to be able to buy tickets, made the most of being back at San Siro for the first time since 2001 when the club were last in the top flight. Bankruptcy in 2004 led to a new club forming in the third tier called Napoli Soccer but successive promotions and a return to their original name of SSC Napoli have brought better fortunes.
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