Argentine Lucas Castroman scored a superb equaliser in the fifth minute of injury time to give Italian champions Lazio a dramatic 2-2 draw with league leaders and arch-rivals AS Roma on Sunday. Castroman blasted a first-time shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the Roma net with four minutes and 33 seconds of injury time played. Roma barely had time to restart the match before the whistle blew on a match which they had led 2-0 with a quarter of an hour to play.

The draw left Roma six points clear of second-placed Juventus, who were held to a 1-1 home draw by Lecce earlier and were left to rue a late penalty miss by Filippo Inzaghi. Roma, seeking their first league title in 18 years, travel to Juventus next Sunday for a match which will go a long way to deciding the championship. They have 63 points to Juve's 57 and Lazio's 56. All three clubs have six matches to play.

The first half at the Olympic Stadium was typical derby material -- frantic, bad-tempered and ugly. But three minutes after the restart Gabriel Batistuta nipped in front of Sinisa Mihajlovic at the near post and flicked a low cross from Marco Delvecchio into the bottom left-hand corner of the Lazio goal for his 16th league strike of the season.

Six minutes later Roma midfielder Cristiano Zanetti threaded a pass through the heart of the Lazio defence and Delvecchio, at full stretch, stabbed a first-time volley into the same corner of the net. Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved pulled a goal back for Lazio with a fine shot on the bounce in the 78th minute and Roma started to look nervous well before Castroman's remarkable late strike.

 

HUGE BOOST

 

Roma had been given a huge boost before kick-off by Juve's home daw with Lecce. Inzaghi had a golden chance to decide the match but struck his 86th-minute spot-kick against the keeper's right-hand post after Zinedine Zidane had been bundled to the ground as he stretched to reach a cross.

Inzaghi then hit the woodwork again in the fifth minute of injury time as Juve desperately sought a winner. Croatian defender Igor Tudor had put Juve ahead in the 40th minute but Lecce equalised within seconds through Alessandro Conticchio, who planted a diving header past Edwin van der Sar from 15 metres. "It's not good. We tried everything," Ancelotti said. "We tried to win the match in every way possible...We're bitter about today's result but also confident we can bounce back next Sunday."

Enrico Chiesa scored twice in five minutes as Fiorentina came from behind to beat Udinese 2-1 and keep alive their hopes of securing a UEFA Cup berth. Chiesa equalised in the 51st minute and then curled a superb free-kick past goalkeeper Luigi Turci in the 56th to take his league tally for the season to 19. That left him one short of Ukraine's Andriy Shevchenko, who converted a controversial 69th-minute penalty to give AC Milan a 1-0 win over Verona at the San Siro.

The penalty was awarded when Shevchenko's striking partner Oliver Bierhoff went down in the box after rounding the goalkeeper, although television replays suggested the big German made a drama out of the challenge.

BAGGIO STRIKES AGAIN

Roberto Baggio scored for the fifth consecutive match -- this time from the penalty spot -- to condemn his old club Inter Milan to a 1-0 defeat at Brescia. And another Serie A veteran, Giuseppe Signori, equalised twice to earn Bologna a 2-2 draw at Atalanta Bergamo. His goals came from a dipping free-kick in the 57th minute and a rare header 15 minutes from time.

In an astonishing match in Bari, Perugia scored four times in 15 minutes to overturn a 3-0 deficit and beat bottom club Bari 4-3. South Korean midfielder Ahn Jung-hwan started Perugia's remarkable comeback with his second Serie A goal in the 67th minute before substitute Anselmo Robbiati scored twice for 3-3. Marco Materazzi scored the fourth with an 82nd minute penalty. "At 3-1 we felt we had a chance of getting a draw. The two goals we needed came quickly. We scored four times in quarter of an hour," Perugia coach Serse Cosmi said. "It's a historic win."         Back