Rome: A late strike by Leandro Paredes ended Roma’s run of four successive league draws with a 2-1 win at Cagliari to reduce the gap on leaders Juventus to seven points and keep their Serie A title hopes alive on Sunday.
Elsewhere, Napoli tightened their grip on third place with a dominant 3-1 home win over Udinese at the San Paolo, where Dries Mertens opened the scoring and prompted an own goal by Frenchman Cyril Thereau in the second half.
In Sunday’s late game, Inter Milan upset predictions against in-form Palermo to end a three-game winless streak and inject some hope into their European qualifying chances.
Argentinian striker Mauro Icardi added a second-half brace to Fredy Guarin’s 16th minute opener at the San Siro to send Inter up to 11th, albeit 24 points behind Juventus and 13 behind Napoli in third.
Samuel Eto’o came off the bench for Sampdoria in Genoa but failed to make the difference as Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men saw their push for a Champions League place stall after being held 1-1 by Sassuolo.
Juventus sit top on 53 points, with Roma second on 46. Napoli are a further four points adrift in third and Fiorentina, who dominated a five-goal thriller with Atalanta earlier, moved up to fourth on 35 points, the same as Sampdoria in fifth.
Juventus had taken their lead over Roma to 10 points on Saturday with a commanding 3-1 win over Milan in Turin, where Carlos Tevez took his league-leading goals tally to 14 for the season.
Roma’s title push stalled due to four consecutive league draws and, with several key players missing, their trip to Sardinia was set to be anything but plain sailing.
However, coach Rudi Garcia repudiated accusations their run of draws was because of a lack of respect for their opposition, despite the Frenchman saying on several occasions that his team would win the title.
“Even if it appears from time to time I say things that appear arrogant, we have not been lacking in humility,” said Garcia.
Alessandro Florenzi, Kostas Manolas, Daniele De Rossi, Kevin Strootman, Juan Iturbe, Gervinho and Seydou Doumbia were all unavailable against a Cagliari team that has enjoyed a minor resurgence under the guidance of Gianfranco Zola.
Captain Francesco Totti shook off flu symptoms to spearhead a three-pronged attack with 18-year-old Daniele Verde to his right and Adem Ljajic out on the left.
Garcia, who made his name as a coach with unfashionable French side Lille, guiding them to the 2011 domestic double, praised the young players who he said made the difference against Cagliari.
“The difference was the young players, with a goal by Paredes and two assists from Verde,” said 50-year-old Garcia.
“I believe in this guy [Verde]. Aside from his technical and tactical qualities, he works a lot for the team and he is very eager. I think he will go far.
“The youngsters showed that when we need to call on them that they are ready and that is good news.”
Cagliari had the brighter start and Roma keeper Morgan De Sanctis had to use his legs to save from Duje Cop at the near post.
Verde, however, made the most of his Serie A debut for the Giallorossi and was Roma’s most dangerous player in the opening half.
He first hit the side-netting from a Seydou Keita assist before sending a lob into the path of Ljajic for the Bosnian to beat Zeljko Brkic in the 18th minute.
Roma survived a second-half onslaught by Cagliari before virtually sealing the points when Paredes fired a superb first-timer from the edge of the area to beat Zeljko at the keeper’s far post.
Cagliari reduced arrears in the fifth minute of injury time when Paul-Jose M’Poku rose to send a looping header over De Sanctis.
However the Sardinians’ 11th reverse of the campaign means they remain just one place and one point above the drop zone.
