Serie A round-up:Mario Balotelli's goal gave Inter Milan a winning start to 2010 but a nasty injury to Cristian Chivu soured their 1-0 victory at Chievo today.
Balotelli struck in the 12th minute to settle the contest in favour of the Serie A leaders, whose defender Chivu suffered a fractured skull in a clash of heads with Chievo captain Sergio Pellissier in the opening moments of the second half and was taken to hospital.
The victory moved Inter nine points clear of Juventus, who won 2-1 at Parma, and 11 clear of AC Milan, who take on Genoa at the San Siro later this evening.
A 39th-minute own goal from Paolo Castellini helped 10-man Juve claim just their second win in seven games at Stadio Ennio Tardini. The defender headed into his own goal after the hosts had failed to clear a corner
Hasan Salihamidzic had headed Juve into an early lead before veteran forward Nicola Amoruso grabbed an equaliser for Parma, but they were unable to find another even after Martin Caceres was sent off in the 73rd minute and slipped to sixth.
Cagliari scored in the 90th minute and again in stoppage time to earn a 2-2 draw and deny Roma the chance of moving up to third.
A David Pizarro penalty and a Simone Perrotta effort had put the Giallorossi on course for all three points in the second half, but, not long after Luca Toni came on to make his Roma debut, Diego Lopez pulled one back for the Sardinians and Daniele Conti then equalised.
Napoli continued their push for European football next season by moving up to fourth with a 2-0 victory at Atalanta.
Fabio Quagliarella set the Partenopei on their way with the opening goal after seven minutes and Michele Pazienza made the points safe 13 minutes into the second half, as Atalanta dropped to 19th.
Fiorentina won the Tuscan derby in style with a 5-1 hammering of basement boys Siena.
Per Kroldrup, Mario Alberto Santana and Alberto Gilardino put the visitors in the driving seat in the first half before the returning Adrian Mutu and a second for Gilardino completed the rout.
Massimo Maccarone’s late penalty was barely any consolation for Siena.
Bari won 2-0 at home to Udinese thanks to a goal in each half from Riccardo Meggiorini and Vitor Barreto.
Simone Pepe came closest to levelling for the visitors when he hit the crossbar just before the break.
Sergio Floccari made a huge splash on his Lazio debut by scoring twice in a 4-1 victory over Livorno.
Martin Bergvold put Livorno in front in the seventh minute before Floccari, signed on a six-month loan deal from Genoa this week, stole the show.
The 28-year-old levelled shortly after the re-start and put his new team ahead in the 54th minute.
Substitute Tommaso Rocchi and Aleksandar Kolarov with a penalty added further goals to make it a convincing win for Lazio.
Livorno had Romano Perticone sent off in the 90th minute.
Sampdoria came from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Palermo. The Blucerchiati had won just once in their last eight fixtures coming into this game and found themselves trailing to Edison Cavani’s strike five minutes before the interval.
Palermo’s lead was short-lived, though, with Antonio Cassano providing the perfect response a minute later.
Sinisa Mihajlovic saw his Catania side move up to third from bottom with a 1-0 victory over former club Bologna, Nicolas Spolli with the only goal of the game nine minutes from time.