Milan dig deep to deny Udinese
Sunday, January 9, 2011
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AC Milan hit a late leveller in a thrilling 4-4 draw with Udinese Calcio but had their Serie A lead cut to four points as Edinson Cavani's hat-trick gave rivals SSC Napoli a 3-0 win against Juventus.
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AC Milan rescued a point with a dramatic 4-4 comeback draw against Udinese Calcio, but SSC Napoli are just four points behind following a 3-0 success at home to Juventus.
Fans at San Siro were treated to an eight-goal thriller as Milan came from behind three times to force a 4-4 draw. Pato cancelled out Antonio Di Natale's 35th-minute opener on the stroke of half-time only for Alexis Sánchez (53) and Di Natale (66) to put the visitors 3-1 up, but the hosts rallied through a Medhi Benatia own goal (78) and a second Pato strike (82). Germán Denis (89) then grabbed what looked to be the winner with a minute remaining, yet the league leaders salvaged a point via Zlatan Ibrahimović in added time.
Napoli moved second thanks to an Edinson Cavani hat-trick, with his three headers leaving Juventus sixth. In third, S.S. Lazio slipped further adrift of the summit due to a 2-1 loss at home against lowly US Lecce, while fourth-placed Roma tasted defeat by the same scoreline at UC Sampdoria after losing Júlio Sérgio to a 55th-minute red card. Their hosts finished with nine men following the late dismissals of centre-backs Daniele Gastaldello and Stefano Lucchini.
FC Internazionale Milano came from behind to triumph 2-1 at Calcio Catania and lift themselves to seventh, while an even more dramatic comeback ended with ACF Fiorentina turning a 2-0 deficit at home to Brescia Calcio into a 3-2 win. Elsewhere, there were victories for Bologna FC and Cagliari Calcio at AS Bari and Parma FC respectively, while US Cittá di Palermo and Genoa CFC were held to 0-0 draws at AC Chievo Verona and AC Cesena.
