AS Roma moved within four points of third place in Serie A after a 5-2 win against lowly Novara and Inter Milan triumphed 5-4 over Genoa in Andrea Stramaccioni's first game in charge Sunday. An enthralling weekend of Italian action ends with second-placed Juventus hosting Napoli as they try to cut the gap with leaders AC Milan to two points after the champions drew 1-1 at Catania amid more goalline controversy on Saturday. The flurry of goals began in the early kick off in Rome but it was second-bottom Novara which took the lead in the 17th minute when Andrea Caracciolo deftly headed home. Roma hit back when Marquinho equalized with his first for the club when he met Pablo Osvaldo's cross with a bullet header after 25 minutes. It took the lead nine minutes later when Osvaldo headed in Francesco Totti's corner and three second-half goals from Simplicio, Bojan Krkic and Eric Lamela sealed the win with Takayuki Morimoto scoring for the visitors. Roma remains sixth but is now only a point behind Napoli and Udinese, whose poor form continued with a 1-0 loss at midtable Siena. Seventh-placed Inter also have outside hopes of reaching third after Diego Milito bagged a hat trick in a nine-goal thriller at the San Siro to boost ex-youth coach Stramaccioni, who took over from the sacked Claudio Ranieri last week. Fiorentina's recent slump dragged on as it lost 2-1 at home to Chievo, leaving it in 17th, one spot above the drop zone. Lecce played out a drab 0-0 draw with Cesena, Bologna lost 3-1 at home to Palermo, while Cagliari defeated Atalanta 2-0.
