Roma win again despite Dzeko penalty miss
MILAN (Reuters) - AS Roma sneaked past Udinese 1-0 in Serie A on Sunday thanks to some inspired goalkeeping by Wojciech Szczesny and despite a shocking penalty miss from their leading scorer Edin Dzeko.
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 from 20 games, one behind leaders Juventus who are away to Fiorentina in the evening game. Napoli are third on 41 with Lazio a further point back in fourth.
Radja Nainggolan gave Roma a 12th minute lead, scoring on the half volley, before Dzeko's penalty miss six minutes later when the Bosnia forward, who has scored 13 league goals this season, sent his effort high and wide of the goal.
Szczesny spared Dzeko's blushes shortly afterwards with a brilliant save to deny Felipe's close-range header and then managed turn away Rodrigo de Paul's shot from under the bar in the next Udinese attack.
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.
Andrea Petagna gave Atalanta the lead at Lazio with a superb effort when he collected Stefan Radu's pass with his back to goal and scored with a half-volley on the turn.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic headed in Lucas Biglia's free kick to equalise on the stroke of halftime and Immobile won and converted a penalty in the 68th minute to settle the game for Lazio.
Marco Boriello scored twice as Cagliari came from behind to beat Genoa 4-1 after the visitors went ahead with a goal by Giovanni Simeone, the son of Atletico Madrid coach Diego.
Sassuolo produced an almost replica performance as they beat Palermo by the same score, a result which left the beleaguered Sicilians two places off the bottom and eight points adrift of safety.
Sampdoria and Empoli drew 0-0 in the other game.
(Writing by Brian Homewood in Berne; Editing by Toby Davis)