European Football

Iaquinta earns Juventus draw at Roma, Inter held

20:52 BST, Sun 23 Sep 2007
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By Paul Virgo

ROME, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A late goal by Italy striker Vincenzo Iaquinta earned Juventus a thrilling 2-2 draw at Serie A leaders AS Roma on Sunday.

The Rome club appeared to be cruising to victory after two first-half goals by Francesco Totti cancelled out David Trezeguet's opener and Alessandro Del Piero missed a penalty.

Roma stay top with 10 points from four games, two points more than champions Inter Milan, who were held 2-2 at Livorno, while Juventus are sixth with seven points.

Fiorentina also have eight points after beating Catania 1-0 away from home.

"Tomorrow, when I look my players in the face, I'll tell them they played a great match and deserved to win," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti told reporters.

The visitors took the lead in the 17th minute with France striker Trezeguet, who headed in his 100th goal in Serie A, his fifth of the current campaign.

TOTTI LEVELS

Totti equalized on the half-hour mark, barging past Domenico Criscito and slipping the ball past Gianluigi Buffon.

The Roma captain made it 2-1 six minutes later when he tucked away the rebound of an Alberto Aquilani shot.

Brazilian midfielder Mancini should have added a third just after halftime when he had the ball at his feet and the goal at his mercy but failed to muster a shot.

A minute later, Del Piero hit a spot kick over the bar after former Real Madrid right back Cicinho felled Pavel Nedved on his debut.

Roma sought to put the game beyond doubt and Simone Perrotta came close with a glancing header before Iaquinta earned Juventus a point.

"We wanted to show that Juventus were alive and kicking. The result is extremely positive," Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri told La Gazzetta dello Sport's Web site (www.gazzetta.it).

"We want to fight for the title too, even though there are two or three other sides who are already settled as teams".

Inter were looking for redemption on the domestic front after losing 1-0 to Fenerbahce in the Champions League on Wednesday.

But lowly Livorno stunned the visitors in the first minute with a Daniele De Vezze strike.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic evened things up in the 35th minute.

The Tuscan side regained the lead in the second half when Massimo Loviso converted a penalty given for a foul by Luis Jimenez on Nico Pulzetti.

But Ibrahimovic came to the rescue again, converting a penalty after he was brought down in the area.

Inter ended the match with 10 men, with Maicon sent off for a nasty foul on Erjon Bogdani in the 81st minute.

Local rivals Sampdoria and Genoa fought out a scrappy goalless draw later on Sunday.

The northern city's first top-flight derby since 1995 was marred by clashes between fans before the match.

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