Italian Serie A Thursday: AC Milan Wait Until End To Beat Cagliari, Roma Come Back To Win Over Catania

With Juventus losing 4-1 to Parma to start off the day, and halftime showing draws for AC Milan and Lazio, not to mention Roma losing to Catania, it appeared as though the first match day of 2011 would shake up the Serie A table. Alas, although clubs have shifted slightly, a surprise shakeup was not to be.

Despite sloppy play, AC Milan remain top of Serie A after substitute Rodney Strasser scored in the 85th minute. While Cagliari made a decent showing of themselves, their own inability to convert chances resulted in dropped points in the last few minutes. The Sardinans slip down to 15th place with their loss.

Lazio failed to make the most of the pressure exerted on Genoa and leave the Stadio Luigi Ferraris with just one point, the result of a 0-0 draw. That’s sufficient to lift them over Napoli for the time being (Napoli play Inter Milan in the late match) but they remain five back of AC Milan.

Roma are set to show the world that they’re in the race for the scudetto. Down 2-1 to visiting Catania at the half, Marco Borriello found the net shortly after the restart to give Roma the equalizer. Borriello’s brace was echoed late in the game with two by Mirko Vucinic, the last coming in the fourth minute of added time. The 4-2 win puts Roma in fourth place, leapfrogging the downward slipping Juventus.

Palermo and Udinese are also both anxious to show that they deserve, if not the scudetto, at least a chance at European competition. Palermo beat Sampdoria 3-0 with goals by Fabrizio Miccoli, Giulio Migliaccio, and substitute Massimo Maccarone, proving at the very least that the letter “M” works well for the Rosanero. Udinese scored their two goals in the first half, failed to convert a penalty just before the break and then sat back and let the 2-0 victory over Chievo Verona stand.

At the other end of the table, Bari beat fellow relegation battlers Lecce 1-0 with a Stefano Okaka goal, yet they remain in last with just 14 points. Just above, Cesena beat Brescia 2-1 to pull the Seahorses three points clear of the relegation zone, leaving Brescia inside the drop. Finally, Fiorentina left Bologna with a point after finding the equalizer in the second half, the 1-1 scoreline keeping the teams inside the middle bottom of the table.

Still to come is Inter Milan vs Napoli, where new coach Leonardo’s mettle will be tested all the way into “Napoli time”.