ANTONIO DI Natale, Serie A’s leading scorer in the last two seasons, scored twice to help Udinese to a 4-1 win over struggling Cesena yesterday and keep alive their unlikely Serie A title challenge. Udinese’s success kept the surprise package two points behind leading pair AC Milan and Juventus who both won away to stay top with 37 points from 17 games.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic converted a first-half penalty, controversially awarded for a foul by Thomas Manfredini on Alexandre Pato, and set up the second for Kevin-Prince Boateng in Milan’s 2-0 win at Atalanta.
The Swede joined Di Natale and Atalanta forward German Denis, who hit the post from close range with the score at 1-0, as joint Serie A top scorers with 12 goals.
Alessandro Matri’s first-half goal gave unbeaten Juventus an unconvincing 1-0 win at bottom club Lecce where they were lucky to survive second-half pressure.
Matri scored from close range when Massimiliano Benassi failed to hold Mirko Vucinic’s low shot from 25 metres.
Francesco Totti (35) scored his first two goals of the season, both penalties, to give improving AS Roma a 2-0 win over Chievo to see the Rome club move up to sixth with 27 points, two behind Inter Milan, who thumped Chievo 5-0, and three adrift of Lazio, who lost 4-0 at Siena on Saturday.
