Claudio Ranieri’s grip on his Inter Milan job appeared even more precarious on Sunday after his side had to fight back from two goals down to squeeze out a 2-2 draw against Catania in Italian soccer’s Serie A.
Ranieri’s team had lost seven of their previous eight games, without scoring a goal, and they were soon in trouble against their unheralded visitors from Sicily.
Catania, with only one point collected in 16 previous visits to San Siro, were dreaming of all three when Alejandro Gomez gave them a 20th-minute lead and Mariano Izco added the second 18 minutes later.
Inter were booed off at halftime by the sparse crowd and the jeers at a clearly-unsettled Ranieri increased in the second half as time slipped away.
But Diego Forlan pulled one back after 71 minutes – Inter’s first in 541 minutes – before the Uruguayan set up the unmarked Diego Milito to grab the equaliser with 10 minutes left.
Despite the late rescue act, Inter remain in seventh place in Serie A, 11 points off the Champions League places.
“The team knew how to react. We looked at each other in the dressing room at halftime and it was a delicate moment,” said Ranieri.
“The guys were formidable. At 2-0 down, they could have lost hope but no. This team never says never.”
Lazio defeated city rivals Roma 2-1 in a stormy derby in which Roma goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg was red-carded inside the first 10 minutes.
Lazio are third with 48 points, three less than second-placed Juventus and six off AC Milan in top spot, while Roma are down in sixth place.
“There is a long way to go. We’re currently in a good position and I hope the team can maintain this concentration now that we’re no longer in Europe. Above all, we must try to recover physically,” said Lazio coach Edy Reja.
“We prepared the game in a certain way and did not change our balance when Roma went down to 10 men, as if your side is balanced, then sooner or later you’ll have the chances to win.”
Goals by Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi gave Napoli a potentially crucial 2-1 success at Parma to take the southern outfit to within three points of the top four.
Napoli moved onto 43 points from 26 matches with their fifth straight win, a run in which Cavani and Lavezzi have plundered 10 goals between them.
Napoli are fifth in the table, three points behind Udinese, who were held 0-0 at home by Atalanta.
Milan still lead the way after they thrashed Palermo 4-0 on Saturday courtesy of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic treble on his return from suspension to move three points clear of Juventus, albeit having played a game more than their Turin rivals.