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ROME: Ten-man Lecce threw a spanner in the Serie A title works asthey held Juventus to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday, allowing AC Milan toclose the gap at the top to just one point. Juve seemed to be cruising to victory after an early goal whiletheir relegation-threatened opponents were reduced to 10 men earlyin the second period. But Andrea Bertolacci's goal five minutes from time snatched a drawand allowed Milan, 2-0 winners over Atalanta, to reduce theirarrears. And it was a horror mistake from Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffonthat gifted Lecce the equaliser, suggesting the Turin giants mightjust be cracking under the title pressure. It ended Juve's eight-match winning run and gives Milan renewedhope of retaining their crown. But Juve coach Antonio Conte refused to blame his decorated keeperfor the dropped points. "There was a moment of slackness, we missed a bonus and now we haveto win the last two games," he said. "But if you'd have offered me this at the beginning of the year,I'd have signed on a thousand times. "That's football, it was incredible what happened. A mistake canhappen, Gigi's having an amazing year." Juve were off to a dream start and it came from their fabledmidfield. The incomparable Andrea Pirlo was given too much time on the edgeof the box and he put in a delightful chip over the defence forClaudio Marchisio to run onto and although his header looked tame,goalkeeper Massimiliano Benassi seemed to slip and the ball creptin. Any chance Lecce had of dragging themselves back into the contestseemed to die 10 minutes into the second period when Juan Cuadradowas harshly sent off for a second booking. Juve missed a hatful of chances but then Buffon's first touch fromAndrea Barzagli's back-pass was horribly heavy and Bertoluccinipped in to rob him and score. Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted that he thought the titlewas over until the late drama in Turin. "With five minutes to go the title seemed over but then Leccescored and at the end I felt like I was at the theatre waiting forthe end of an opera," he said. "I'm enjoying it a lot. Now we'll arrive at the derby fired up. Thetitle is still in Juve's hands but even taking it to the finalmatch wouldn't be bad." Milan started brightly and a pair of efforts from Kevin-PrinceBoateng and one from Zlatan Ibrahimovic tested goalkeeper AndreaConsigli. On nine minutes, Boateng found Muntari in the box, although theGhana midfielder was perhaps offside, to poke in from close range. Milan enjoyed the lion's share of chances but they had to waituntil injury time to wrap up the points through Robinho. Inter Milan's Champions League hopes took a knock as they lost 3-1at Parma and now trail Napoli and Udinese by three points in therace for third. Inter took the lead after just 13 minutes as Wesley Sneijderarrived at the back post to squeeze in the ball from a tight angle. But two goals in two minutes turned the game on its head. Sebastian Giovinco robbed Lucio and then nutmegged Walter Samuel toset up a tap-in for Jose Marques before scoring the second himselfafter beating the offside trap. Former Inter forward Jonathan Biabiany sealed the points late onwith the third. Udinese matched Napoli's points with a 1-0 win at already relegatedCesena, although they trail the southerners on head-to-head record. Diego Fabbrini scored the only goal of the game but Cesena's AdrianMutu hit the bar with a penalty. Lazio are two points off third after they were held 1-1 at home toSiena, who went in front through Mattia Destro before the hostsequalised with a Cristian Ledesma spot-kick. Novara joined Cesena in Serie B as they were relegated after a 2-2draw at Fiorentina. - AFP/ac. We are high quality suppliers, our products such as Stainless Steel Wire Rod Manufacturer , Cutting Wire Rope for oversee buyer. To know more, please visits Bead Wire Wrapping.
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