Mauro Camoranesi scored the winner in the 88th minute, and defending champion Juventus beat host Fiorentina 2-1 on Sunday to widen its lead in the Serie A.
France striker David Trezeguet put Juventus in the lead in the eighth minute, kicking in a low cross from Zlatan Ibrahimovic for his 11th goal this season.
Trezeguet missed the chance to make it 2-0 a few minutes later.
Fiorentina equalised in the 39th with a header from Gianpaolo Pazzini, but a long pass from midfield caught Fiorentina’s defence wide open, and a header from Trezeguet fed the unmarked Camoranesi in the 88th.
”It was a wonderful, tense match,” Juventus coach Fabio Capello said.
”This is the kind of soccer we like to see on the field and in the stands.”
An Italian Cup match between the two sides in Florence last Thursday was marred by crowd disturbances which forced suspension of play for about 20 minutes. It ended 2-2.
”A draw could have been a fair result,” Capello said, adding the title run was wide open despite his team’s comfortable lead.
”There are five months to go and a lot of points at stake.”
Juventus, which won for the 13th time in 14 matches, has 39 points, eight more than second-place AC Milan, which lost to Chievo Verona 2-1 on Saturday.
Fiorentina (9-2-3) slipped 10 points behind Juve and is tied for third with Inter Milan, which beat visiting Ascoli 1-0 Saturday.
Fiorentina twice hit the crossbar in the first half at Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence, and then again in the second half.
In the 75th, league-leading scorer Luca Toni rushed toward goal unmarked and beat Juventus goalkeeper Christian Abbiati with a low shot, but the ball struck the post and bounced out.
Abbiati, Juventus’ number two ‘keeper, made quality saves on close-range attempts by Cristian Brocchi and Pazzini.
”We did not deserve this loss,” Toni said. ”We were unlucky, it was destiny we could not beat Juventus today.”
Last-place Lecce held AS Roma to a draw, rallying from a 0-2 first-half deficit to 2-2.
Antonio Cassano scored with a lob and defender Cesare Bovo added another with a long distance drive to give Roma the lead.
Substitute Giuseppe Cozzolino and Mirko Vucinic evened the score. Lecce’s goals came within a seven-minute span, and the second was a penalty.
Also on Sunday: Livorno won 2-0 at Udinese to climb to fifth place in the 20-team table; Palermo stretched its winless streak to seven matches after wasting a 2-0 lead and allowing Cagliari rally to 2-2; Lazio beat Siena 3-2 at Stadio Olimpico on goals by Paolo Di Canio, Cesar and Igli Tare; second-half goals by substitute striker Marco Borriello and veteran Francesco Flachi gave Sampdoria a 2-0 win over visiting Empoli; Treviso and Messina drew 0-0; and Reggina beat 10-man Parma 2-1 with captain Francesco Cozza scoring one goal with a curling corner kick.
At Udinese, Livorno was helped by an early own-goal by midfielder Cristian Obodo, who deflected a low cross into his net while trying to clear.
Cristiano Lucarelli, last season’s Serie A top striker, made it 2-0 in the 73rd with a powerful drive for his seventh goal of the season.
Underdog Livorno is only four points behind Fiorentina and Inter Milan, one ahead of another surprising provincial team, Chievo Verona.
Palermo got two first-half goals from strikers Andrea Caracciolo and Stephen Makinwa, but was unable to defend the lead in the second half.
At Genoa, Borriello scored in the 77th a few minutes after entering the field as a substitute, and Flachi beat two defenders to add a late goal for Sampdoria, which moved to seventh in the table.
Reggina captain Cozza curled a corner kick into the goal in the 10th and fed defender Gaetano De Rosa for the winner in the 21st. – Sapa-AP