Advertisement

Roma slip up in race for second as Napoli win

AS Roma's Vassilis Torosidis (R) jumps for the ball against Atalanta's Guglielmo Stendardo during their Serie A soccer match at the Olympic stadium in Rome April 19, 2015. REUTERS/Tony Gentile

By Jacopo La Monaco ROME (Reuters) - AS Roma wasted a golden opportunity to regain sole possession of second place in Serie A as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by relegation-threatened Atalanta on Sunday. That allowed 10-man Napoli to gain ground in the race for the runners-up spot behind champions-elect Juventus by crushing lowly Cagliari 3-0 for their first away win in over two mont Rudi Garcia's third-placed Roma are level with Lazio on 58 points, with seven games to play, 15 behind leaders Juve. Napoli are fourth on 53 points, three ahead of Sampdoria. "I'm not disappointed, I'm mad and there's a difference," Garcia told Sky Sports Italia. "Few things worked today. We played bad, Atalanta played bad, even the referee had a bad game." The match could not have started better for Roma who were awarded a penalty after two minutes when Atalanta's Guglielmo Stendardo slipped and handled inside the area. Captain Francesco Totti calmly netted from the spot for his sixth league goal of the season. Atalanta's leveller, 20 minutes later, also arrived from the penalty spot -- courtesy of German Denis -- after Davide Astori was adjudged to have pushed Ubi Emanuelson. Roma had more than an hour to notch a second goal but were not able to find one despite finishing the match with five attacking players. "I don't want to get into more detail, I'll keep it for myself and talk to the players on Monday," added Garcia. Atalanta remain just above the drop zone in 17th place. OWN GOAL Napoli, coming off an impressive 4-1 thrashing of VfL Wolfsburg in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, went in front after 24 minutes through Jose Callejon. The Spanish striker notched his 11th league goal of the season after a perfect through ball by Marek Hamsik. A few seconds before the end of the half Antonio Balzano acrobatically headed a Hamsik cross into his own goal ending any realistic hope of a comeback for Cagliari. Fourteen minutes after the break Manolo Gabbiadini, who had come on three minutes earlier, scored his 17th of the season in all competitions with a curled shot from just outside the area. Napoli finished with 10 men after Christian Maggio was sent off after picking up a second yellow card in the 65th. Cagliari are second-bottom on 21 points, nine adrift of the safety zone. MILAN STALEMATE Inter Milan and AC Milan played out a 0-0 draw which further hitting their hopes of qualifying for Europe next season. Inter dominated at the start and came close to taking the lead when Hernanes drilled a shot from 20 metres that goalkeeper Diego Lopez parried wide. Milan thought they had opened the scoring on the half-hour when Alex's volley from close range flew past Samir Handanovic only for the 'goal' to be ruled out for a Nigel de Jong offside. Roberto Mancini's side also started celebrating with 18 minutes left when Philippe Mexes sent a Hernanes shot into his own goal but referee Luca Banti had already blown for a foul by Rodrigo Palacio on Marco Van Ginkel. Inter kept the pressure on Milan until the closing minutes and Lopez was lucky to see a Palacio tap-in bounce off his chest with 10 minutes to play. "I'm disappointed with the result," Mancini told Sky Sports Italia. "I hope that all the bad luck we've encountered so far will end soon. We tried everything possible to win this match." Milan are ninth on 43 points, one place and a point ahead of their neighbours and six adrift of sixth-placed Fiorentina in the last Europa League qualifying spot. Torino drew 1-1 at Sassuolo and have 44 points, alongside Genoa, who lost 2-1 at Palermo, and five adrift of Fiore who host Hellas Verona on Monday (1845 GMT). Bottom side Parma drew 2-2 at Empoli while Bostjan Cesar's own goal helped Udinese earn a point against Chievo Verona. (Reporting Jacopo Lo Monaco, editing Ken Ferris and Douglas Beattie)