Milan making up ground on Inter

FC Internazionale Milano lead Juventus by five points at the top of Serie A after drawing 1-1 with AS Roma but are now looking over their shoulder at city rivals AC Milan, who beat S.S Lazio 2-1 to go third and extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games.

Vučinić header
Inter could have found themselves behind as early as the third minute but Mirko Vučinić pondered when clean through on goal, allowing Lucio to sweep up. The Montenegrin made no mistake on 13 minutes, however, beating Inter's Brazilian centre-back to Marco Motta's cross to send a looping header beyond Júlio Sérgio. Samuel Eto'o ensured José Mourinho's side earned a share of the spoils when he pirouetted inside the penalty area three minutes into the second half and fired into the bottom left-hand corner.

Brazilian scorers
Milan are seven points adrift of Inter after goals from the Brazilian duo of Thiago Silva (21) and Pato (35) gave the Rossoneri victory, the former turning into his own net on 64 minutes to halve his side's lead. ACF Fiorentina had their own South American, Juan Vargas to credit for a 1-0 win at Udinese Calcio, the Peruvian finding the net six minutes from time to keep the Viola one point behind Leonardo's charges.

Stankevičius dismissal
UC Sampdoria are without a league win in three and dropped to fifth after losing 2-0 at Cagliari Calcio, Daniele Conti and substitute Alessandro Matri scoring in the closing five minutes to lift the hosts up to eighth. The visitors were reduced to ten men three minutes before half-time when Marius Stankevičius was shown a straight red card. Directly above eighth-placed Cagliari are Parma FC following their 2-0 home triumph over AC Chievo Verona, Cristian Zaccardo (41) and the on-loan Davide Lanzafame (72) on the mark.

Siena stay bottom
Lanzafame's parent club, US Città di Palermo, drop down to eleventh after a 3-1 defeat by Bologna FC. Genoa CFC are sixth following their 4-2 success over bottom-placed AC Siena, while AS Livorno Calcio remain in the bottom three following their 1-0 loss at AS Bari.