MILAN: Radja Naingg­olan hit a first-half winner as AS Roma won 1-0 at Udinese despite a shocking penalty miss from their leading scorer Edin Dzeko to move to within a point of Juventus for a few hours at least in Serie A on Sunday.

Juve, bidding for a record sixth straight league title can restore their four-point lead if they beat Fiorentina away in Sunday’s late game.

But the Old Lady of Turin was given another reminder of potential obstacles on the way to the Serie A title with Roma, Napoli, Lazio and Inter Milan all winning.

Napoli comfortably saw off bottom club Pescara 3-1 while Ciro Immobile’s second-half penalty gave Lazio a 2-1 win over Atalanta.

Roma’s sixth win in their last seven Serie A games left them with 44 points. Napoli are third on 41 with Lazio a further point back in fourth.

AC Milan, in fifth at nine points adrift, are away to Torino on Monday while Inter moved up to sixth with a 3-1 win over Chievo on Saturday when Mauro Icardi hit the opener to stretch his league-leading goals tally to 15 for the season.

Nainggolan gave Roma a 12th minute lead, volleying Kevin Strootman’s ball over the top into the bottom left corner.

Dzeko should have exte­nded Roma’s lead six minutes later but he blazed his spot kick over the bar after Marco Davide Faraoni had been penalised for handball.

Dzeko also could have sealed the match 10 minutes from time but he headed wide from close range.

Pescara, who have taken only nine points all season, kept Napoli at bay until halftime but the hosts broke loose in the second half with goals from Lorenzo Tonelli, Marek Hamsik and Dries Mertens.

Gianluca Caprari scored Pescara’s consolation with a stoppage-time penalty.

Lazio fought back to beat Atalanta and extend their advantage over both Milan sides to four points.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic headed in the equaliser in first-half stoppage time after Andrea Petagna had opened the scoring in the 21st before Immobile converted the winning penalty in the 68th after being tripped by former Lazio goalkeeper Etrit Berisha.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2017