Roma back on top of Serie A

Champions Roma returned to the top of Serie A after a comfortable win over Piacenza on Sunday as bottom-placed Venezia pulled off a shock draw against Inter Milan.

Brazil midfielder Assuncao gave Roma the lead over Piacenza, the only side to have beaten them in the league this season, from a powerful free kick in the 14th minute.

Gabriel Batistuta then underlined his return to form with his third goal in as many games to seal the points.

Inter Milan, who were expected to field Brazil forward Ronaldo until the injury-prone striker's latest setback in midweek, looked to be on course for another win when Christian Vieri put his side ahead in the 28th minute.

It was Vieri's 14th goal in just 12 games and looked to be sending Inter to their first win at Venezia since 1967.

But Filippo Maniero ensured Venezia's resilience was rewarded when he fired in a 70th minute penalty after being hauled down by Vratislav Gresko.

In the Sunday's late match, Juventus pushed themselves firmly into third place with a 3-1 win over Chievo.

Ciro Ferrara gave Juventus the lead with an 18th minute header and Fabio Moro knocked the ball into his own net three minutes after halftime.

Alessandro Del Piero won an undeserved penalty when Chievo goalkeeper Cristiano Lupatelli was wrongly judged to have brought him down in the box.

But Lupatelli was curiously not sent off despite being the last man and saved Del Piero's subsequent spot kick.

Chievo hit back through Massimo Marazzina's 10th goal of the season only for Moro to handle the ball in the area and Del Piero made no mistake with his second penalty.

DRAMATIC FIGHTBACK

Carlo Ancelotti's hopes of pushing AC Milan back into the championship race were all but ended thanks to a dramatic fightback by Udinese at the San Siro.

Under-fire Ukraine forward Andriy Shevchenko gave the home side the lead with a penalty in the fifth minute, seemingly erasing memories of last week's costly miss against Fiorentina.

Brazil wing-back Serginho doubled Milan's lead, although Roberto Muzzi, reduced the arrears before halftime with his 11th of the season.

Shevchenko was brought down in the box by Gennaro Scarlato in first half injury time only to see his second penalty well saved by Udinese goalkeeper Luigi Turci.

Scarlato then equalised eight minutes into the second half with a free header and Inter target Martin Jorgensen ensured the visitors took the points when he knocked in Muzzi's free kick.

Atalanta won their first Serie A game for nine weeks, sweeping aside a resurgent Fiorentina in Bergamo.

Brazilian forward Inacio Pia scored first for the home side from close range and Italy midfielder Cristiano Doni made sure of the win with 15 minutes to go.

Lazio's disastrous season took another knock when Cristiano Lucarelli volleyed Torino to victory.

Lazio, seventh in the standings and 15 points behind the leaders, sorely missed injured Argentina striker Hernan Crespo and lost goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi at halftime through injury.

MERO TRIBUTE

Brescia put thoughts of Vittorio Mero behind them after a dogged match against strugglers Lecce, which moved them out of the relegation zone.

Roberto Baggio, starting his first game since November, created the first goal for Luca Toni, who celebrated by showing a T-shirt with a message of support to defender Mero, killed in a car accident last week.

Ernesto Chevanton equalised for Lecce before further goals from Toni and Emanuele Filippini put Parma back in the drop zone.

The game also saw the introduction of Bulgarian forward Valeri Bojinov, who at 15 is the youngest foreigner ever to feature in Serie A.

Verona took a 17th minute lead through Mario Frick at Perugia giving no chance to debutant Colombia goalkeeper Oscar Cordoba.

But Iran defender Rahman Rezaei equalised with almost an hour gone and goals from Ahn and Giovanni Tedesco pushed Perugia back up the table.

Verona also had Paolo Cannavaro sent off.

In Saturday's late game, Turkey forward Hakan Sukur scored his first goal for Parma since joining from Inter Milan to give his new side the points over Bologna.

Carlo Nervo deflected Fabio Cannavaro's seventh minute header past Gianluca Pagliuca before Sukur's strike, with Fabio Pecchia pulling one back for Bologna, who also had Matteo Brighi sent off.