Inter Milan hold Juventus to hand Roma a title lifeline

Juventus' Stephan Lichtsteiner (L) fights for the ball with Inter Milan's Mauro Emanuel Icardi during the Italian Serie A football match at Juventus Stadium in Turin. (AFP/MARCO BERTORELLO)

MILAN: Inter Milan showed encouraging signs on new-signing Lukas Podolski's debut as they battled to a 1-1 draw at champions Juventus to hand Roma a welcome Serie A title boost.

Roma had Davide Astori's controversial first-half goal to thank for a 1-0 win away to Udinese earlier in the day. Rudi Garcia's men are now only a point behind the leaders, who had to settle for share of the spoils in Turin after Mauro Icardi struck in the second half to level Carlos Tevez's fifth-minute opener.

Juventus started their first official game of the year looking to make amends for their Italian Super Cup defeat to Napoli in December. And Massimiliano Allegri's men made a blistering start, Tevez bundling Arturo Vidal's inviting ball past Samir Handanovic to take his league-leading tally to 11 for the season.

Inter squandered their best chance of the half in the 23rd minute when Mateo Kovacic, sent off minutes from full-time for a rash challenge on Stephan Lichsteiner, saw his attempt to send Icardi through go awry.

Podolski made his debut for Inter 10 minutes after the restart, replacing Zdravko Kuzmanovic, and his arrival sparked an Inter revival.

Inter levelled on 64 minutes, as Icardi was somehow allowed to collect Fredy Guarin's long ball from midfield and then held off Leanardo Bonucci to the right of goal to slip the ball under the onrushing Gianluigi Buffon. It was the Argentinian's fifth goal in four league games against Juventus.

Juventus came close twice in succession to restoring their advantage, Handanovic batting away Andrea Pirlo's swerving free kick with one hand, while Paul Pogba's header trickled wide of the upright from a corner.

But Inter were far from finished, Icardi narrowly missing the target after sliding in to meet Podolski's drive across the face of goal, after Bonucci had lost possession in midfield, and then forcing Buffon to block his well-struck drive.

Kovacic saw red in the final minutes for a studs-up challenge on Lichsteiner, but Juve failed to capitalise as Inter held on for a precious point that moved Roberto Mancini's men up one place to 11th.

ROMA PROTESTS

Earlier, Roma coach Rudi Garcia defended Astori's goal after the defender's header from Francesco Totti's free-kick came off the underside of Orestis Karnezis's crossbar and bounced over the keeper's goalline.

The goal appeared to be initially ruled out by the goalline official but, following protests by Roma, was validated by the referee. Garcia admitted that the use of goalline technology would "end any doubts" but added: "At the end of the day the match referee is the one who decides, he was quite well placed to see the ball go over."

However Udinese coach Andrea Stramaccioni hit out: "My biggest complaint is about the goalline referees. It's got nothing to do with the score. Roma won and we accept the scoreline. But if the goalline officials, who are put there to rule on borderline goals, are simply ignored by the referee then what is the point of them being there?"

Elsewhere, Napoli's push for a place in Europe was buoyed by a 4-1 away win at struggling Cesena, who dropped one place to bottom with Parma moving the other way after a shock 1-0 win over nine-man Fiorentina.

Gonzalo Higuain struck a brace, the Argentinian's eighth and ninth goals of the campaign, as Rafael Benitez's men moved level on points with Lazio in the third and final Champions League qualifying spot.

"We've started the year off well," said Higuain, who also struck twice in Napoli's recent Super Cup triumph over Juventus. "We have to keep going like this because there is still a lot to play for in this league."

AC Milan's European ambitions stalled after a shock 2-1 home defeat to Sassuolo left Filippo Inzaghi's men seventh but five points behind Lazio and Napoli.

Gianfranco Zola's Serie A coaching debut at former club Cagliari, meanwhile, ended in a painful 5-0 rout at Palermo, whose sixth win of the campaign moved them up to eighth place.

Italian Serie A results:

Udinese 0 Roma 1

Chievo 0 Torino 0

Empoli 0 Verona 0

Genoa 2 Atalanta 2

Milan 1 Sassuolo 2

Palermo 5 Cagliari 0

Parma 1 Fiorentina 0

Cesena 1 Napoli 4

Juventus 1 Inter Milan 1