Roma close gap on Serie A leaders
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Roma's Totti battles with Reggina defender Martines.
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ROME, Italy -- Roma stayed in touch with Italian Serie A leaders AC Milan and Juventus with a hard-fought 2-0 win over Reggina on Sunday.
Vincenzo Montella put Roma ahead on 18 minutes, but the home side had to wait until 81 minutes for their second, when John Carew finally made the game safe. Third place Roma trail the leading duo by two points.
Parma moved up to fourth place after coming from 2-1 down to win 3-2 at Brescia.
Roma have 18 points from eight games, two less than AC Milan and Juventus who drew 1-1 on Saturday. Parma are one point further back.
"We're two points from the top, that's what we wanted," said Roma coach Fabio Capello.
Roma made a bright start against Reggina, with Montella beating the offside trap to open the scoring from Olivier Dacourt's pass.
But the home side failed to take control of the game, and it wasn't until Capello replaced Montella and Antonio Cassano with Norwegian Carew and Daniele De Rossi that Roma made the game safe, with De Rossi laying on the pass for Carew to score.
"To go all the way you need to be able to cope with suffering at home to the little sides as well as being able to take on the big boys," said Montella.
Alberto Gilardino scored Parma's winner against Brescia on 70 minutes. Matuzalem and Luigi Di Biagio had twice put the home side in front, only for Domenico Morfeo and Marco Marchionni to equalize. Brescia also had Brazilian striker Matuzalem sent off on 79 minutes.
But Parma's victory was marred by the loss of their Brazilian striker Adriano, who was carried off with an apparently serious hamstring injury.
Seventh-placed Inter Milan earned their first win under new coach Alberto Zaccheroni with Alvaro Recoba and Christian Vieri on target in a 2-0 win at Chievo. The home side had goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani sent off in the first half for a foul on Vieri.
In other matches on Sunday, Cristiano Doni scored as Sampdoria won 1-0 at Bologna, and two goals from Ernesto Chevanton earned a 2-1 win for Lecce over Empoli. Riccardo Allegretti scored the only goal of the game in Modena's 1-0 win over Perugia and Ancona and Siena drew 0-0.
