Lazio Return to Top As Juve Are Held By Nine-Man Parma
ROME, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Argentine striker Hernan Crespo scored a last minute equaliser as nine-man Parma held Juventus to a 1-1 draw on Sunday, allowing Lazio to go top with a 3-1 victory over Bologna at the Olympic stadium.
Juve had looked like coasting to victory after Alessandro Del Piero converted a 69th minute penalty and Parma had Stefano
Torrisi and Dino Baggio sent off in rapid succession.
Instead Crespo's 12th goal of the season allowed Lazio to mark their centenary by regaining the league leadership which they had lost five days ago with defeat at Venezia.
Czech Pavel Nedved and new signing Fabrizio Ravanelli scored
Lazio's second and third goals, but not before Swede Kennet
Andersson had threatened to gatecrash his old side's celebrations by equalising Marcelo Salas's first-half opener.
After 16 matches, Lazio lead Serie A with 34 points, one ahead of Juve on 33 and three in front of Parma. AS Roma and AC Milan, fourth and fifth respectively, were meeting at the San Siro later on Sunday while sixth-placed Inter were at Fiorentina.
Elsewhere, Udinese thrashed Perugia 5-0 and Cristiano Lucarelli's seventh goal of the season for Lecce condemned Torino to their sixth successive defeat.
Bottom-of-the-table Cagliari finally won their first match of the season, 3-0 at home to fellow strugglers Piacenza.
JUVENTUS RUE POOR FINISHING
Until Crespo's late equaliser, only Juventus's poor finishing -- eight goals in 16 matches -- looked like denying the visitors their first win at the Tardini in five years.
Filippo Inzaghi missed badly in the fourth minute, shooting wide when clean through. Del Piero was another culprit, missing from eight metres in the 42nd minute before Torrisi's foul on Inzaghi in the 69th allowed the striker to redeem himself from the penalty spot.
Torrisi's clumsy challenge earned a red card and when Baggio
joined his team mate on the sidelines in the 77th minute for a
crude tackle on Gianluca Zambrotta, Juve looked home and dry.
But seconds after Inzaghi had a goal disallowed for offside,
Crespo showed why he is currently Serie A's top scorer. Given his first clear run at goal, the Argentine rounded Ciro Ferrara before beating Dutchman Edwin Van Der Sar at the near post with a low diagonal shot.
Lazio had invited a host of former stars to the Olympic stadium to mark their 100th birthday celebrations and, in the 19th minute, one old boy threatened to steal the limelight.
Giuseppe Signori, who scored 107 goals in six seasons at Lazio, hit the bar for Bologna. The home side's nerves, already on edge after last Wednesday's 2-0 defeat in Venice, were pushed to the limit in the 25th minute when Yugoslav Sinisa Mihajlovic blasted a penalty over the bar after slipping in his run-up.
Chilean Salas did calm his team mates' nerves in the 42nd minute, heading in his eighth of the season after Nedved's shot hit the bar but, in the 51st, Andersson levelled from a Signori cross.
Nedved restored Lazio's lead with a firm header in the 76th
minute but his dismissal seven minutes later left the home side
an anxious finale.
Only Michele Paramatti's sending off and Ravanelli's injury time goal on his Olympic stadium debut made sure of top spot. "Unfortunately we're not playing well and that's why it was
vital to win today," said Lazio coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.
