MILAN: Miroslav Klose and Felipe Anderson starred as Lazio thumped Empoli 4-0, their eighth successive league win, to take over second spot in Serie A from city rivals AS Roma, who were held to a 1-1 draw at Torino on Sunday.

Roma travelled to Torino hoping to close the gap on leaders Juventus to 11 points after the defending champions slipped up on their way to a shock 1-0 defeat at Parma on Saturday.

But after taking a 57th-minute lead thanks to Alessandro Florenzi’s spot-kick, Roma were pegged back by Maxi Lopez’s leveller only minutes later and spurned a host of late chances before settling for a share of the points.

The setback means Roma dropped one place to third to sit 13 points behind Juventus (70 points) and one behind Lazio after Stefano Pioli’s men turned on the style at the Stadio Olimpico.

Lazio raced to a 3-0 halftime lead through Stefano Mauri, Klose and Antonio Candreva, and Anderson added a fourth shortly after the break.

They still had to play the last half hour with 10 men after Diego Novaretti, who came on for Stefan De Vrij just before half-time, was booked twice in 12 minutes and sent off before the hour.

Napoli ended their dismal run with a 3-0 win over Fiorentina to leapfrog their opponents into fourth, seven points behind Roma. Sampdoria moved level with Fiorentina after drawing 1-1 at AC Milan.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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