Walter Samuel's injury-time goal gave Inter Milan a 4-3 win over
Siena and extended Inter's lead at the top of the Serie A to 11
points on Saturday.
Inter led with 45 points, followed by AC Milan with 34 but
has played two matches less, and Juventus with 33.
Elsewhere, Daniele De Rossi scored early to give 10-man AS
Roma a 1-0 win over Chievo Verona.
Massimo Maccarone opened the scoring for Siena in the 18th
minute, but Inter responded with goals from Diego Milito and Wesley
Sneijder before Albin Ekdal brought the visitors level before
halftime.
Maccarone's second in the 65th appeared to have handed
bottom-team Siena a vital win, but a second free kick from Sneijder
and Samuel's late strike helped Inter squeeze past.
"It was a hard match tonight, very hard," Samuel said. "We
were missing a lot of players and knew we had to get a result.
"We knew that Siena would be hard to play against, as they
showed against Fiorentina last week. We had to give our all for
this result."
Goran Pandev went close to scoring his first Inter goal in
the fifth. Pandev cut in from the right and hit a low shot that
Siena stopper Gianluca Curci pushed away for a corner.
Maccarone gave Siena the lead in the 18th. The striker
collected the ball on the halfway line, and when no defender closed
him down he hit a powerful, long-range strike past Inter keeper
Julio Cesar.
In the 24th Milito pulled Inter level. Sneijder hit a long
ball over the Siena defense to Milito, who cut in and curled a low
shot past Curci.
Sneijder gave Inter the lead in the 36th when he curled a
free kick over the wall.
A minute later though, Siena was level. Maccarone crossed to
Ekdal who was left unmarked for his first goal of the season.
After a slow start to the second half, Maccarone grabbed his
second of the night in the 65th. Reginaldo broke down the right and
cut the ball back to Maccarone, who shot low from the edge of the
area.
With two minutes remaining, Sneijder scored his second free
kick of the night to give Inter a share of the points, then in
injury time defender Samuel found space in Siena's area to turn and
fire home the winner.
Earlier, Roma was relieved to edge Chievo Verona.
"We needed to win to get going again," Luca Toni said.
"Against Cagliari we let two points go, but we made it difficult
tonight playing with 10 players for nearly 80 minutes."
De Rossi found the net with a header in the second minute
from David Pizarro's corner for his fifth goal of the season.
In the fifth, Toni went close to grabbing his first goal
since joining Roma on a six-month loan deal from Bayern Munich.
Taddei crossed from the right, but the former Fiorentina striker
headed wide.
Roma goalkeeper Doni was sent off in the 12th after he
handled the ball outside the area to stop striker Elvis Abbruscato
from scoring.
Despite playing a man down, Roma should have doubled the
lead. Davide Mandelli brought down Toni, but Chievo goalkeeper
Stefano Sorrentino saved Pizarro's spot kick in the 56th.
